Fish of a Different Skin
by cgaussie01
Summary: Pt 8! Many things take place in this chapter! Minion is out to find his boss, Roxanne is trying to report the story live to the entire ciry, Megamind and Lady Doppler banter back and forth... and then action.
1. The Big Bang

"Minion! I need your assistance in the lab! Immediately!"

The urgency in his boss's voice told Minion that the crepe soufflé in the oven had to fend for itself. Rarely had he ever heard Megamind's voice warble with such a twinge of panic and distress, so he abandoned his cooking and started running across the lair's recently cleaned (by himself, of course) floor, forgetting to remove his pink apron in the process. With Megamind calling like that, everything else became unimportant... especially clothing and cooking as well as cleaning. Some of the Brain Bots, sensing the distress, barked and floated after the fish, red eyes flashing with as much concern as the fish's.

Minion pulled open, practically ripping down, the large velvet curtain that normally hung across the doorway leading to the laboratory. Whenever Megamind wanted to really work and concentrate on something he'd close the drapes, meaning he didn't want to be disturbed for anything. The fish had learned quickly enough how much privacy Megamind wanted at times like those, since he wouldn't have to stop and explain everything to him. In fact, it had been a while since Minion had stepped into the lab, so long that the last time he was here they had been creating the 'Metro Man pill' which had set everything down its course.

It had been clean and tidy, then. Well, as tidy as a super villain's lab could be. Now, though, so many of the glass vials had been knocked over, and chemicals giving off strong smells were splattered everywhere. The wind, also, was somehow whipping around the room, and just how this was possible became quickly apparent.

The DNA-extracting machine was going haywire. It was spinning faster and faster than he had ever seen it do before, and there was Megamind at the controls, trying to regain control of it. He was pulling on levers, pressing buttons wildly, his eyes wide as he stared up at the machine. His cape was caught up in the wind flapping around his large head, and was becoming dangerously close to becoming snagged by the grinding gears of the machine.

In fact, that's just what happened. Minion saw it play out slowly, painfully, as the black material suddenly snagged onto something. It tightened around Megamind's neck, and the alien choked out a startled gasp as his frail frame began to leave the ground, following the path of the machine.

"SIR!" Minion screamed as ran towards the machine, and threw his hands out. His wrists extended rapidly, and his metal hands clamped down onto Megamind's arms and pulled back, trying to pull him out of the machine.

"MINION, MINION!" Megamind screamed back, breath stolen by the tightness of the machine and body burning from the heat radiating off of it. "IT'S GOING TO BLOW!" he called out. "RUN!"

"NO SIR!" Minion was close to the machine now, still holding tightly onto the alien caught somewhere between him and the machine. "NEVER!"

"OBEY ME MINION, OBEY ME!" demanded the alien, since, truly, if there was going to be an explosion he didn't want the fish getting caught up in the blast.

But then a Brain Bot flew up from out of nowhere. Its sharp jaws came down on the cape, ripping it in half entirely. Megamind flew into Minion's arms due to momentum, and the two spun around before collapsing onto the ground as the poor Brain Bot's long legs were caught up in the machine and it was sucked into the gears with a painful yelp and a sharp grinding noise. The machine suddenly seemed to growl as the extra Brain Bot parts began knocking around inside of its gears. It suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree, and Minion looked up at it, before realizing he had no time to run, or push his boss to safety.

So he covered him entirely with his robot body seconds before there was a deafening explosion that knocked out the power for four blocks around the lair, was picked up by the geologists in Metro City, and set off car alarms in the direct area. It even blasted a hole in the side of the lair, and at the point of explosion, bright, blinding light filled the day sky as if everything had been shrouded in night.

Megamind coughed violently as the dust in the air decided to intrude upon his trachea, and waved his hands in front of his face as he desperately tried to breathe again. The weight of Minion's robot body was almost crushing against his small frame, but it had, indeed, protected him from falling debris as well as the explosion itself. The fur along the body had been blasted off entirely, leaving the robot body just that… a pile of scrap metal and broken glass. But it was only once Megamind could breathe again that he lifted his green eyes to stare up at the glass dome where Minion lived, and was horrified to see it had been shattered in the explosion... and Minion wasn't there.

"NO!" he screamed, despite his throat aching terribly, as he wriggled out from under the useless robot's body. "Minion!" he called, trying to see through the dust and make his way around the pieces of the machine, and wall, that now covered his lab's floor. "MINION PLEASE! Where are you! This isn't funny!" Megamind demanded as he tripped over more pieces of twisted metal. "COME OUT NOW!"

A horrific image filled Megamind's mind for a moment: Minion's small, broken body squashed somewhere under some metal, or burned alive by the explosion. Hearts racing rapidly, Megamind began to search harder still, ordering the Brain Bots to search for Minion as well. He pulled away pieces of bricks and metal, trying to keep ahold of his emotions but failing miserably. If Minion was dead... what would he do? What could he do? He couldn't go on without him; he'd always been there with him... Roxanne could never fill the hole, not only in his heart, but his soul itself. Why hadn't he ever told him these things? Why hadn't the alien ever taken the time to really tell his friend just how much he meant to him, how lost he would be without him?

He suddenly heard the most wonderful sound in the . Megamind spun around, eyes wide, looking to where he heard the coughing. "Minion?" he asked desperately as he began running towards the place.

"Ughh..." Minion's voice came through the thick dust. "S-Sir are... are you all right?"

"Of course I'm all right, but how about you, where are you are...are you... you..." Megamind's voice trailed off into silence. The last thing he expected to find was sitting there on the ground before him.

It was a body. A very human-looking body. Of a man. A man with soft, pale green skin that covered every inch of him. Large brown eyes blinked up at Megamind, and yet, somehow, a familiarity was there in those eyes. Megamind knew those eyes. Ears, ending in a slight point, stuck out against his head, and that head was of average human size. He had jet-black hair that stuck in all directions thanks to the blast and was thick with dust. The face had freckles, but not everywhere... they worked around his eyes and forehead, and on his shoulders there were obvious darkened sections of skin that mimicked the stripes a little fish used to have on his sides.

Was this...?

"Minion?" Megamind asked quietly.

"Yes, Sir?" the man asked back, voice belonging to that of his fish.

"Oh my God," the alien said as he lifted his hands, pressing them to his mouth.

"What is it? Sir? Are-" Minion, who had been dazedly lying on his back, since what else could a fish do after an explosion, suddenly realized that he... felt.. beyondwhat he normally felt. He wasn't feeling dried out at all, despite being blasted out of his water into the dry world outside. Did he...

Cautiously, slowly, he moved his fins; but instead, fingers moved. Minion tried to move his tendrils; instead a leg suddenly kicked up in front of him before flopping back down onto the ground. His brown eyes doubled in size and his heart raced within his chest. "Oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God oh my God-" he began saying, again and again.

"Calm down, Minion, calm down!" Megamind rushed forward, grasping the naked man by the shoulders. "Y-you're fine. You're fine you-you must have been blasted with some genetic material in the machine before it exploded, it-it just... just re-wrote your genetic code into... into this..."

This was amazing, though. Despite his friend's panic, Megamind couldn't help but see the wonder of it all, the scientific majesty. Minion, a fish, had been turned into a ... a human-alien hybrid! He had the same familiar skin tone of his fish body, still had the markings, even the freckles were reminiscent of his bioluminescent lights! "It'll be all right, I'm here. Calm down. Breathe. In. Out. In. Out."

"Is this what air tastes like?" Minion asked weakly, mind still racing at everything he could suddenly feel. He had arms, legs, toes, fingers, chest, abdomen... his fish body had been changed so dramatically. He suddenly stared down at himself, taking in the full view of himself in the clearing light. The human body wasn't what you'd call overly muscular, but he wasn't a skinny whelp either. He was just that little bit more defined physically than his boss, but he was a little sturdier, which seemed to mimic his poor robot body that now lay in a crumpled heap.

"Here, come on..." Megamind grabbed at Minion's wrists, slightly surprised at how thick and strong they felt. "Let's... let's get you to your feet..."

"Whoa, whoa whoa..!" Minion shakily got to his feet, his legs wobbling under his weight. It was almost like a baby learning how to walk for the first time. Normally, Minion only had to think the ability to walk and it happened. This... this was muscles, and bones, nerves and everything else inside the human body. It felt ever so strange, and unnatural. "I-I don't think I can, Sir it..."

"Nonsense. You have to walk. You've been walking for years!" Megamind insisted, barely even noticing or seemingly caring that Minion was as naked as anything. The fish, as well, didn't seem at all upset about it either, since he had always been naked. When the cold would get to him though, then he would feel a bit put off. "Come on now. Walk!"

All while Megamind was trying to teach his best friend the wonders of walking again, neither seemed to realize the commotion happening outside. It had been a disaster, after all, so there was already a crowd of people gathered around. Paparazzi were snapping photographs as the police blocked off entrance to the lair, while the ambulance and fire engines were parking around outside. A handful of cops rushed in, and were instantly blocked entry by the Brain Bots, who growled and barked at them. Like their daddy, the Brain Bots tended to forget they were good guys now, so whenever they saw police they tended to growl and bark.

The barking didn't go unnoticed by the two aliens, and Megamind turned his head before looking up at the gaping hole in his lair, which, somehow, he hadn't noticed. "Oh... this will take some explaining..." he muttered. "Babies!" Megamind called out. "Leave the police alone! Let them in!" he called before turning to look at Minion. "I think it's good that-"

"WAH!" Minion's foot tripped, and he ended up falling over and on top of his boss, easily pinning him beneath him. "Oh, Sir I'm sorry!"

"It's fine, get off, get off!" Megamind spluttered, the wind knocked out of him. "Honestly!"

He heard the awkward noises from across the room, and the two aliens turned their heads to stare at the group of policemen, and one lone fireman, who stood in the doorway where the remains of the red velvet curtain once hung. They had expected destruction, maybe a fire or two, and some injuries, but instead they found Megamind underneath a naked green man.

They really didn't know where to put their eyes, or what to say.

"Help us up, you fools!" Megamind demanded. "Minion, get up, get off!"

"Sorry Sir, I'm sorry; I, I don't know what does what..." Minion flustered, face turning a deeper shade of emerald as Megamind squirmed beneath him. "I-I'm just glad you're all right, most of all," he admitted. "I thought, I thought-"

"Yes, yes, me too, but can this touchy-feely moment wait until we're not being so touchy-feely?" Megamind asked since, finally, he realized how very naked Minion was and how heavy he felt.

The policemen helped in lifting Minion to his feet whilst the paramedic there wrapped Minion in a silvery metallic-looking blanket to help keep him warm and no longer exposed. "Thank you."

"Megamind, what, what happened?" asked one of the policemen as he looked around the destroyed laboratory.

"My DNA extraction machine underwent a hyperactive instability caused by-" he stopped when he saw just how much these humans wouldn't understand. He sighed, and put his hands to his hips. "Overheating. My machine blew up."

"And this?" asked one man, pointing to Minion, who was wobbling on his feet.

"Minion did his job and protected me and, as a result, got blasted with some DNA. It scrambled his own and made him into this." Megamind gestured to the fish. "Simple, really."

"I think I'm going to fall over aga-AIN!" Minion hadn't been propped up by the police and ended up falling over onto his back, feet up in the air. "This is getting annoying."

"For everyone involved," Megamind added, trying not to look. "Somebody find him some pants, please?"

To be continued


	2. Feel the Grass

"Reports claim that the explosion was the result of one of Megamind's old 'evil' inventions suffering a major malfunction. This has brought on a lot of public doubt about the ex-villain's devices. What are the chances of something like this happening again, and in a more populated area? The results may very well be catastrophic, and lives might even be lost. We take you now to Alex Snider, who is on the scene with Megamind specialist Bernard-"

Megamind turned the television off with a dramatic press of the remote, eyes narrowed dangerously. He had expected the explosion to appear on the television, but he never would have anticipated the news, and people, would take such a negative view. As if he did it on purpose, as if all his devices would spontaneously explode? Maybe, just maybe, if he was evil again, this sort of thing would be right up his alley, but now?

Bernard, especially, was somebody who was voicing distrust of the alien. Not only had he de-hydrated him and stolen his phone, but he had also practically stolen his identity, and left him in a lint-filled pocket until his 'pet' fish had found him and knocked him out with little to no hesitation. He was a specialist in the study of investigating the alien's activities, so who else would they turn to when they were beginning to doubt him as a know-it-all?

He felt wounded.

And then there was Roxanne... their relationship was in another one of those 'off' statuses that she seemed to use more often lately. Naturally he still watched her on the news, though. Of course he did. How could he not? She had been such a major role in his life and its turning point, but... the woman had said she wasn't looking for a serious relationship at this point in time.

What did that mean? He wasn't serious enough? He had dressed up in a suit for her, for crying out loud. How more serious could he get? But no, Roxanne claimed she didn't want to go jumping into a relationship with him right off the bat because of what happened, because she didn't want to be one of those 'trophy' girlfriends. Another phrase Megamind hadn't understood. Despite the fact that she had hurt him deep down, she was still fun to be around and he still liked meeting with the woman to watch movies together, or going for bike rides through the (cleaned up) city park. But she just... couldn't move further than that. Not now, anyway.

Minion had once said it was because he had lied so much, so badly, that she couldn't move past it. No matter how many times he apologized for it, too. Deep down, Megamind knew this was the truth.

Women. Tch... Go figure. You can be a genius from another planet yet you still couldn't understand them.

He heard movement behind him, and turned around to see Minion walking towards the fridge. His companion had been in this human form for an hour and a half now, and by now was getting around just fine. The first few hours, though, had been embarrassing for everyone involved. He could barely walk; much less control his fingers and limbs. Going from a fish swimming in water, controlling a robot body through thought functions alone, to a human body with muscles and tissue mass was... a bit jarring.

Minion could walk now, though now and then he would forget to bend his knee and end up almost falling over, but he was still much better than when he started out.

"Oh Minion," Megamind sighed as he set his hands to his hips. "I knew those people would put a neeg-ate-eve spin on our predicament, but I didn't think it would be so, well, horrible."

"What's wrong, Sir?" Minion asked as he tried to wrap his fingers around the water jug's handle. It took him a few tries, but finally he pulled it out. That was a strange drawback, besides losing his strength and being able to lengthen his arms with his robot suit, that he felt thirsty so often.

"The explosion. People are now wondering if all of my glorious creations will explode, or if it's a sign of me turning back to the side of evil," Megamind said, as he crossed the room and picked up a glass and waited for Minion to drink his fill before taking the jug from him, scowling when he saw how empty it was.

"That's terrible of them, Sir, but you did terrorize them for years," Minion pointed out.

"Still no reason to judge me so quick!" Megamind snapped.

"All right, all right," sighed the fish-man.

"So uh. How. How are you faring? Any problems? Motor skills functioning poperly?" Megamind asked, looking over the fish. He had, since falling all over himself earlier that day, begun wearing some clothes. Minion had tried on some of Megamind's clothes, but they were far too small and tight on him, so he had to gather up what materials he had and make himself some clothes to just throw on. Naturally they were black, tight fitting, and clung to his new body. The collar was up to his neck, and the sleeves reached down to his elbows, leaving his forearms exposed. He had made some pants out of similar material, only they came down to his ankles rather than just his knees.

The 'M' symbol that Megamind wore on everything was sewn onto his back, between his shoulder blades. From it, bolts of lightning arched, reaching around his sides and down his back. He had to actually buy some boots, since his feet were at least twice Megamind's size, and his boots were of course black with one big silver buckle on each. Atop his head sat some black goggles, forever ready for if he needed to do some welding. Truly, he looked the part of a faithful Minion, even with his odd green colored skin. But Megamind's was blue, so was it really bad to have another oddly-colored person to hang out with?

Though the black hair was an interesting addition to the fish-man's head; it was short yet it seemed to stick up in two places on top of his head, seemingly following the natural ridges that Minion's fish head had. Naturally they no longer lit up, but you could see the resemblances to his aquatic self easily if you squinted. And if you really, really looked you would see the tip of the antennae sticking out at the back of his head. The little device had remained stubbornly embedded in his head since; after all, it was very much a part of him. If his robot suit had survived the blast, Minion could probably still control the thing but it, like the DNA-Extracting machine, had been pretty much destroyed in the blast.

Megamind was a little miffed at how Minion was taller than him, as well as hair, and just a little bit broader. Still, somebody had to be the muscles to his impressive brains, so he guessed he could let it slide. For now…

"Oh, no, not really," Minion admitted as he lifted a hand and turned it around slowly. "So far so good. But I tell you, using a toilet? Weird."

The alien paused a moment to have that realization sink in, before snorting loudly. "Oh Minion. You crazy fish you."

"I'm not a fish now though," pointed out the man.

"No, but deep down you still are," replied Megamind.

"I guess you're right."

"Of course I am. I'm Megamind," snorted the alien smugly, with a flair of his hand. "I'm always right!"

Minion rolled his eyes but smiled. He glanced at the gaping hole that the Brain Bots were working hard on fixing; they had gotten crazy-good at fixing holes in walls, and they had all done the reconstruction of Metro Tower, too, and any other building affected by the destruction done to the city thanks to Hal. Minion watched as they worked tirelessly, barking to one another in a language only they could truly understand as they shifted new bricks and cleared away the rubble. Naturally, they had sorted the rubble into pieces of wood, metal, rock, and miscellaneous.

Megamind walked over to the pile of metal and knelt beside it, picking up what had once been a giant gear. "This will take forever..." he sighed.

"Forever, Sir?" Minion asked as he walked up to him, and stared down at the genius.

"To rebuild my machine," Megamind sighed, setting the piece down.

"Rebuild but... but why?"

Megamind looked up at him, eyes narrowed. "In case you forgot, Minion, you're no longer yourself."

"Are you saying I'm not useful to you anymore?" Minion asked, sounding mortally wounded. The tips of his pointed ears seemed to twitch, and marginally lowered in the same way his fins had done when he was upset. "I'm still Minion, Sir, I'm just... just in a different body."

"So you're saying you want to stay this way?" Megamind asked, pointing at him before stroking his beard in a pondering way. "Curious."

"Well. I don't know. It's. It's early to say, Sir," admitted the fish-man with an awkward shrug before he looked down at his nails and picked at them, amused faintly by how he had a thick green line running down the length of each finger, and how he had a faint webbing just a centimeter long between each digit on his hand. It was as if he would have had fully webbed fingers, and toes, but the human genetics hadn't allowed it completely. "I'm still useful to you in this body, and that's really what matters at the end of the day to me. If, if I'd been rendered totally useless to you, then I would want to be changed back as soon as possible."

"Oh Minion," Megamind sighed. "Always looking out for my wellbeing. You fantastic... uh... fish-man you," he complimented awkwardly.

"Fish-man works, Sir," grinned the fish-man. His teeth, also, had undergone some transformation. While his bottom row teeth still were a bit larger than his top ones and he still had his under bite, his teeth had become fairly human and boring-looking. His canines, though, looked ridiculously sharp enough to be intimidating.

"Brilliant. Good," the blue alien said before sighing, and looked at the Brain Bots working diligently. "...it's going to take a while to clean this mess up."

"I could help them, Sir," Minion offered.

"No, no. No." Megamind shook his head and wagged a finger to further run the idea home with the fish-man. "You, my fine fish-man friend, are not allowed to do anything for the remainder of the day."

"Who are you and what have you done with my friend?" Minion demanded, narrowing an eye suspiciously yet also playfully. What was his boss getting at? Nothing? All day?

Megamind scoffed. "What? I can't be generous?" he asked. "Minion, look at you. You've... you underwent a change that would render anyone a psychological and physical mess, but look at you! Trooping on! Let the Brain Bots bother with the cleanup duties. I think," he said, narrowing an eye with a grin, "you need to experience what being human is like."

"Oh?" Minion asked.

Minion stood with Megamind at the Metro City Park gates, fidgeting his fingers together as he stared out at the green, lush area. He felt butterflies in his stomach, yet he couldn't really understand why. He'd been outside before; he'd been outside so many times, but why was it that his heart was pounding so fast within his chest it felt as though it would burst out like a chest-burster? He looked down at Megamind, standing beside him, grinning as if he was about to launch into an evil laugh to end all evil laughs.

"Sir?" he asked, nervously.

"Go on, go on! Take your shoes off," Megamind insisted.

"What?" Minion asked, shocked. "That's unsanitary!"

"Kick off your black leather shoes! Feel the grass between your toes, the wind in your hair, everything you've never felt before! Go on! It's an order, Minion. Dare you defy me?" Megamind asked in a warning tone, holding a finger up threateningly to the fish-mans' face.

"No, of course not, Sir!" Minion shot back.

And down he got onto one knee, unstrapped the buckle on the boots and pulled his foot out of it, along with the black sock he was wearing. He stuffed the sock into his shoe before standing momentarily to kneel again, only to remove his other shoe and sock.

When he stood up to his full height his bare feet felt the pavement under him, and it felt... rough. This was a new feeling, to be sure. He wiggled his toes against it for a moment before walking off the path and onto the green grass, and it felt as though the second he did his senses were suddenly over-whelmed all at once. It was like a man who hadn't been able to see colors his entire life had suddenly been shown a rainbow, or one of the most beautifully bright paintings in the world. The grass felt amazing beneath his feet, and he wiggled his slightly webbed toes, catching it between them. Crouching over, the fish-man dug his hands against the grass, feeling the smooth yet rough texture for the first time in his life.

"Oh, oh wow," he whispered, before a sudden strong gust of wind came from out of nowhere and washed over him, ran across his exposed skin and ruffled his hair. He laughed, getting to his feet, and looked around. Lifting his hands, he didn't seem to know what to do. "Oh, oh, this. This! I've never...!" After an entire life of living in water, hidden behind thick glass, suddenly being able to feel everything around him in some way or another was an overload. "Everything looks so-it's not distorted anymore! Why, why didn't I see this before? I can smell everything, Sir, everything...!"

Megamind stood back, watching his friend have this moment to himself. He had never seen Minion look so happy before in all his life; even when he would be working diligently on a new outfit for him, baking, or sketching out new designs. Had Minion ever experienced such joy before in his life, Megamind had to wonder, as well as why his hearts suddenly felt... what was the word? Glow-ey? He chuckled to himself, folding his arms across his chest as he continued to watch the fish-man romp around the grass and it brought back memories of his own first time in the park, with his Bernard disguise on, with Roxanne. How she had taken him bike-riding for the first time in his life, and how caring she had been towards him. Their picnics, confessions on a blanket under a tree... now those memories came with a tainted pain he didn't like.

Dwelling on the woman now, though, wasn't good. This was about Minion, the fish who would have given up his life this morning for him, and not about his messy on and off again relationship with the news reporter.

He walked forward, bending to scoop up the big boots for his friend. "Wonderful, isn't it?" he asked.

"Yes!" Minion said. He had, rather suddenly, fallen backwards onto the grass and was waving his arms and legs as if he was making a snow angel. "It-it's just... I don't know Sir, words aren't... gah!"

"Ho, ho, yes, yes. It is amazing." Megamind smiled. This was almost like him as well, back when he was a child, allowed out of the cold, dead environment of the prison to the highway when he was five years old. He was part of the cleanup duty team, but that had been the first time he had ever experienced grass beneath his feet. The little blue alien had gotten in trouble for dawdling, for touching the grass as if it were something magical and wondrous, but he hadn't cared. Even though he had explained it to Minion once he got back home, the fish had never truly understood what grass felt like, or what a warm summer breeze did to one's skin. But now he did. "Say, Minion. What say you to a hawt dawg?" he asked, mispronouncing the words as always.

"A non-soggy hot dog?" Minion sat bolt upright, eyes wide. He hadn't eaten a thing all morning, but the realization that his food would no longer be accompanied by mouthfuls of water, or be dripping wet, seemed amazing to him.

"Come on, we'll get you all the trimmings!"

"Toppings, Sir."

"Same thing!"

It wasn't long until the two friends were sitting under a large tree by the huge pond, both eating a hot dog each. Megamind had gotten his with mustard and onions, whilst Minion had cheese, sauce, onions, relish, and mustard as well. He was eating it as if he hadn't eaten in his life before, and the feeling of eating something dry, not swallowing water into his stomach like normal, it was magic.

"Oh my gosh, you're Megamind!"

A little girl ran up to the two, holding her blue Frisbee tightly in her hands. "Oh my gosh oh my gosh!" she seemed to be stuck on repeat like any little child would be seeing a hero, and famous person, sitting around like any normal person.

"Hello small... er.. child." Megamind greeted after swallowing his bite of hot dog.

"Eee!" she squeaked, amazed he had spoken to her.

Minion watched as Megamind ended up signing her Frisbee, smiling broadly as he did. His boss had come such a long way in such a short amount of time, even if he did have a few slip ups now and then... but making the transition from a super villain to a super hero wasn't always so simple. For that brief moment, he had thought changing his appearance entirely and pretending to be like Metro Man would be for the good of everyone; thankfully, Minion had helped him realize he was just fine the way he was. Sometimes they ran into people who thought less of him, who still saw him as a menace to society and as a 'ticking time bomb' who could snap at any minute and go back to his evil ways. Minion had told Megamind those kinds of naysayers weren't worth his time, much less the sensation of being de-hydrated.

Because, after all, good guys don't de-hydrate people… at least, people obeying the law.

"Who're you?" the little girl asked him, pulling Minion out of his thoughts.

"Oh, this is Minion!" Megamind introduced him, as if they were at a gala or something.

"That's not Minion. Minion's a fish," the little girl said, as if they didn't know that fact.

"Normally you'd be right," Minion replied brightly, "But there was a bit of a blast in the lab today and I came out looking like this."

The little girl observed his face, those brown eyes, and the fact he had green skin and a... familiar appearance despite the obvious differences. She pouted. "I like Minion the fish better. You're ugly," she said, using that bitter honesty that most children possessed.

Megamind glanced at Minion, and saw how his ears twitched, and only justly sagged. The alien then frowned and fought against the instinct to pull out his De-gun and dehydrate her. Children before had called Minion, and himself, ugly... way back when they had been children themselves. Though the fish had said it had never bothered him that badly, Megamind had always felt deep down it had wounded the little fish. It certainly wounded him. Out of the corner of his eye, though, Megamind spotted who he could only guess were the little girl's parents watching him, and he was certain they knew about the explosion in his lab, and how people were already quick to peg him as returning to his evil ways.

De-hydrating a little girl was probably not a good thing to do, now especially.

"Shoo now. Your mother needs you." Megamind gestured to the little girl, making 'shoo' motions with both of his hands. "Go on, that's it. Good little child. Go on. Get. See you! Yes, yes, I know, I am amazing. Go on now!" He kept waving until she was gone, before groaning and turning to Minion. "Don't listen to her, Minion. You're not ugly."

Minion put on a brave face, grinning as brightly as he could. "Oh, I know that, Sir. It's just, I'm... different to how people originally see me, that's... that's all."

Megamind scowled, before suddenly jumping to his feet. "Let's go bike riding!" he announced, quickly changing the topic and wanting to see Minion happy again like he had seen him on the grass. He wanted to see that content, glowing face on his friend once more and never wanted to see him upset because of stupid little children again.

"Huh?" Minion blinked, surprised and taken aback by the offer.

"Bike riding!" repeated Megamind. "Bicycle, bicycle!" he sang, reaching down and grabbing both of Minions' wrists.

"But I can't ride a bike, Sir. I, I've never even tried-"

"Then it's about time you learned!"

"But-"

"No buts!" Megamind managed to haul Minion to his feet. "Come on, this way, this way!"

To be continued


	3. Gunshots and Fear

It had taken all the encouragement in Megamind's arsenal to finally get Minion to push off from the bike (with training wheels attached) that he had borrowed from the bike lender's stall in the park. Minion had strapped a helmet awkwardly to his head (his antenna made it a little difficult), gotten on the bike, and had stared ahead at him blankly for a good minute before Megamind began to push him along the path. The two aliens got a lot of strange looks, even a few people filming them, but Megamind hadn't the mind to tell them to push off.

Becoming a hero of a city meant people liked you, or at least recognized you, and he had experienced how far the looming shutter of the paparazzi stretched. His pajamas had been front page news one day, and he had been alarmed by it. Minion had insisted it only showed people wanted to know whose clothes he wore; namely, his. But then people became adamant they wanted pajamas like that, and Minion had been offered so much money to allow a brand to make them. He had only accepted because it meant much-needed funds for him and his boss.

He still didn't like how people would follow them with cameras, though… especially now that he was a human-alien hybrid. Minion breathed hard as Megamind continued to push him along the path.

"You're doing great, Minion!"

"I don't think I am," Minion replied as he swayed slightly on the bike.

"Focus your balance! You can do it!"

"I can't, I haven't got my swim bladder anymore!"

"Then use your liver ladder or whatever it is!" Megamind demanded.

Just when Minion was beginning to gain some momentum, and confidence, the duo unfortunately met a sudden incline in the path. Megamind lost his grip on Minion, and he watched as the fish rode the bike down the hill and crashed into the fence surrounding the lake, and went flying into it.

He stood there, momentarily shocked at just how quickly all of it had happened, before racing down the path. "MINION!" he called frantically, nimbly jumping over the fence to land in the murky, yucky water near where the bike stuck halfway out of the water.

His hands pushed through the water trying to find the fish-man. Had he struck his head? Was he drowning? Where was he? "Minion! Minion! Come out of that water right now, I mean it! I—" he was suddenly splashed by water. Megamind spun around, eyes wide with shock and some anger, and spotted Minion just vanishing back into the water.

"MINION! YOU!" Megamind pushed the water after him, but the fish-man was already gone ."Get up here! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

Another splash, this time from another direction. Megamind's anger was quickly extinguished by the water and the laughter of Minion, who seemed to find great enjoyment from suddenly being in the water.

He began splashing back at the fish-man whenever he surfaced. The two aliens were soon splashing water back and forth at one another like little kids in a kiddie pool, laughing and spluttering when the water hit them. Megamind didn't even seem to care about being drenched to the bone, which was something, since he normally hated getting wet… especially in his leather.

But Minion was more important than leather, wasn't he?

It wasn't long until the two pulled themselves and the bike from the lake and were lying out on the grass trying to dry off.

"Bike riding may be a little too hard for me, Sir," Minion admitted as his black hair clung to his face.

"You may be right, Minion. After all, you can't be as gifted as I am," Megamind replied smugly.

"Of course not, Sir," grinned the fish-man, as he turned his head to look at the blue alien. "Then I wouldn't be the minion anymore, would I?"

"You'll always be my minion, Minion," smiled the alien. "Nobody else's."

Minion simply beamed.

"Are you two all right?" The voice, coming from above the two, startled Minion. He looked up and tilted his head back to see a woman standing over them, looking a little worried. Minion rolled, slowly, onto his side to get a better look at her. She had thick, curly blonde hair that was tied back with a red ribbon, yet either way the hair came down to the middle of her back. She was wearing blue jeans, and a white t-shirt with had a design that reminded him of bubbles.

"Yes, yes we're quite fine," Megamind answered on Minion's behalf, not bothering to look up at the woman.

"Took a bit of a spill into the pond, huh?" she asked, smiling softly.

"Uhh," Minion said smartly.

"I saw your bike." She pointed to the soaking wet bike that was lying on the grass just on the other side of Megamind. "I've fallen in here too."

"That sounds fascinating," Megamind said as he sat up and turned to look at the woman. He was a little put off by how she was staring just at Minion. Didn't she realize the hero of the city was laying here as well?

"I'm Mary," the woman finally introduced herself, smiling at Minion. "What's your name?"

"Minion," he answered right away.

"Minion?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes."

Mary looked at Megamind, as if suddenly realizing he was lying here too. She looked back to Minion, then back at Megamind. "But…but aren't you… normally a fish…?" she asked.

"Somebody doesn't keep up to date with recent events," Megamind said loudly, making both Mary and Minion turn and look at him. "There was an explosion in my lab today, and Minion here took the full force of the DNA-extraction machine. He ended up like this."

"Oh!" She blinked in surprise before tilting her head and giving Minion a good looking-at. "…well. I must say you make a pretty good-looking guy, Minion."

Minion's face began to turn a deeper shade of emerald, and if he wasn't sitting in the sunlight they might have noticed the freckles on his forehead began to actually give off a very, very faint glow. Seemed some of his bioluminescence had been retained. At least he had that. "T-thank… thank you…" he mumbled.

Megamind narrowed his eyes at Mary, not liking what was going on here, though he couldn't for the life of him understand why. Minion had been spoken to by women before; reporters, fans, mothers, little girls and teenagers, who had all at some point declared their love for him because he was such a positive, and supportive, fish. He had been called adorable, sweet, and cute so often he should never have let the negative slurs affect him, and yet now… Megamind didn't like this. Was it only because he was now human-shaped that women were taking a certain kind of interest in him? If, indeed, this was what was happening?

"Well, I got to get back to work. It was great meeting you, Minion, Megamind." Mary smiled before turning and hurrying off, and Minion watched as she left. He tilted his head to the side slightly as his eyes began to slowly trail downwards.

"Minion."

Megamind's tone, and voice, snapped Minion out of the slight haze of thoughts and images in his mind. He turned his head to look at his boss. "Yes, Sir?"

"Let's go home."

"Already?" Minion sounded disappointed.

"…All right. But let's not hang around this park anymore. I've had enough of grass and puppies and people." Megamind got to his feet and shook himself, the last bits of water coming off finally.

"Right away, Sir." The fish-man got to his feet and stretched his arms up above his head, yawning as he did. Once he was done, he looked off in the direction in which Mary had gone, but she was already no longer in sight. He sighed. She seemed nice, if a little forward about telling him he was now good-looking. That was nice of her, but he didn't really agree with her.

"Come along, Minion. Let's return this bicycle to the stall and get out of here."

"Where shall we go now, Sir?"

In the end he had taken Minion to the shopping mall. A shopping spree seemed to really perk the fish up; he ran into the first fabric store he could find and spent up to an hour touching absolutely everything. He rubbed his cheek against the silk, wrapped himself in cotton, looped lace around his fingers, and more or less made a nuisance out of himself by wanting to feel every kind of fabric they had in stock. While he had indeed spent a lot of his spare time working with materials and sewing, being able to actually touch and feel them was just as amazing as feeling grass between his toes.

His sense of smell served him well when they approached the food courts. Normally, Minion could pick up only trace amounts of smells in his suit, which filtered some air through into his water, enabling him to smell smoke, for example, which was handy if he was cooking. But to actually smell absolutely everything, the mouth-watering food of so many kinds… he had another sensory overload and had to sit down a moment.

Then they had gone to a book store, and Minion touched a book for the first time in his life. The weight, the smell, the feel of the pages fluttering as he turned a book over in his hands… it all felt so amazing. He was running out of words to describe what it all felt like, to see the world no longer distorted in water, to smell, touch, feel, taste… all thanks to a horrific accident that could have been the end of his life.

The only downside to the whole excursion, in Megamind's opinion, was the fact there were so many people here. So many young women had approached Minion, complimenting him on his new body. A few had even been bold enough to call him sexy, to say that his buns were amazing (what did that mean?) and the like. Even some men had grinned at Minion in ways nobody had ever done. Megamind, put off by all this, soon ended up pushing Minion out of the mall once they had bought a few things for the fish (namely new materials, slippers, and something to wear to bed).

"Well, they seemed nice!" Minion said brightly as they walked towards the invisible car.

Megamind said nothing at first, before smiling for his companion. "Yes. Nice."

"Is, is something wrong, Sir? You've been awfully quiet, and that's unlike you," Minion mumbled as he moved a little closer to the shorter alien man. "Did something those people said upset you?"

"Upset? Me? Hah! Hah I say, and _hah _again!" Megamind scoffed. He put his hands on his hips and snorted an amused laugh. "Come come now, Minion. Do you really think I'd let some overly leery people who were clearly checking out my minion's body out affect me?"

"There were a fair few looking at you, Sir."

"Really?" Megamind asked, eyebrows raised.

"Oh yes!"

"Well. I can _hardly _blame them," Megamind smiled, ego stroked by the knowing words of his friend. "I mean, I _am _quite a looker aren't I?"

"Most definitely, Sir," Minion replied, tone dropping a little as he said it. "Your presence lights up any room lucky enough to have you step into it."

Megamind, and Minion, stopped short after that small admission. They both stared at each other a moment, Megamind's face purpling while Minion's turned green.

A car alarm in the distance broke the awkward silence, and Megamind stood to his full height. "Yes, well! All right then, let's, let's get going then!"

"Yes Sir," Minion said immediately.

They had just been getting into the car when a sudden scream echoed through the car park. The two spun around, listening for where it came from. In the distance, a woman was struggling with somebody. A burglar? A carjacking? The two aliens exchanged one look before Megamind pulled his De-Gun out of its holster and Minion raced ahead, the awkwardness already forgotten. As upstanding heroes of the city, they challenged injustice no matter when they ran into it, and the poor criminal who was acting out against the woman was going to answer for it.

"N-no please," the woman with sandy brown hair begged. A man wearing a black ski mask over his face had her up against the car with a knife pinned against her neck. "T-take anything, take everything…!"

"I plan on it," growled the man, but before he could act on this announcement, a fist came in contact with his face. The force knocked him backwards, and the blade he was holding fell to the ground without causing any serious damage to the woman who screamed, pulling away from the whole scene.

Minion stood there, fist still outstretched from when he punched the man, before he stood to his new full height and shook his hand.

Wow, punching people _hurt_.

"What the—" the man, gathering himself, spluttered as he got to his feet again, to see the man dressed in tight black material standing there. "Who the Hell-"

"YOU THERE!" Megamind stepped out from behind Minion, De-Gun primed and pointed at the criminal. "Hands in the air! I mean it! Don't make me cube you, boy!"

The man stared down the barrel of the steampunk-styled gun, and then up at the taller man beside the hero Megamind. His jaw was already aching terribly from the punch, and he felt enraged he had been insulted in such a way. If he was quick enough, he just might reach the pistol hiding underneath his shirt against his back and cause a big enough distraction to getaway.

Who could he shoot? The woman was already out of range, and he needed Megamind to be distracted rather than bleeding. Mind made up he moved quickly, and it took less than a blink for Minion and Megamind to know what was going on.

They had been raised around criminals. While those who had been closest to the two aliens were good souls, despite ending up in prison, there had been other crooks they had outright avoided. The ones who had killed, murdered, raped, abused, burned, and stole just for the joy of it all. Growing up around such men, Megamind knew how to read their actions quickly. But as the man went for a concealed weapon, it seemed as though Minion had a rare lapse of 'do as your master tells you', because the next thing Megamind knew Minion was upon the man, yelling.

"HE TOLD YOU HANDS UP!" Minion screamed, grabbing at the wrist that now held the revolver. The two struggled against one another in the darkened corner of the car park, and Megamind couldn't do anything for a few seconds. Minion was in the way. If he shot the De-Gun and struck Minion he'd be cubed, leaving an armed man unrestrained and capable of doing who knew what. But if he managed to hit the man, Minion would be safe. "Minion! Minion!" he hissed angrily as he kept moving his De-Gun, trying to keep a trail on the man.

The gun went off. Megamind heard Minion shout.

He pulled the trigger.

The revolver hit the ground harmlessly at the same time as a blue cube.

"MINION!" Megamind raced toward his friend, who had almost fallen over since the man he had been holding onto had suddenly vanished. "Minion, did he hit you? Where are you hit, are you all right?" he asked frantically, pressing his hands against Minion's back first before moving around his side to his front, praying he wouldn't pull away to find blood slicked over his gloves.

"I-I'm… I'm fine… I'm good, I'm good Sir…"Minion said shakily, heart racing within his chest. He hadn't been hit, thankfully, but the sound of the gun going off had scared him. Why? Because, at the last moment, Minion had forgotten he was no longer in his robot gorilla body. He had forgotten he was flesh and blood, and that bullets could now do great damage to his poor body. Thankfully the bullet had missed him by mere inches before burying itself into the wall next to them.

"Oh thank God. Thank _God_!" Megamind's arms were suddenly around Minion's neck, burying his face against the fish-man's shoulder. "I thought-I thought…!"

Minion didn't know what to say, or do at first. His boss was hugging him. Had this ever happened before? While he had indeed held his glass ball tightly to him twenty-four seven when they were growing up together, and had touched his robot bod,y he had never… really _touched _him before. Even when he had dealt with his fish body he had always had those leather gloves on. Minion suddenly realized that he had never felt the warmth of his boss's, his friend's, skin against his own before. Even now, just that little patch of skin that Megamind's cheek and temple were pressing against, it felt… amazing.

The fish-man tried to laugh it off, but it came out as a weak little noise. His arms lifted and very lightly wrapped around Megamind's small frame. _He's so thin. He's always been so thin, but he's never been weak…_

Megamind shuddered as the fish-man's arms wrapped around him. Not many people had embraced Megamind in his life. Roxanne was one of them. The Warden was another. And now Minion. He felt his face growing hot and he pulled himself away from the man, face tinted purple, as he suddenly remembered there had been a woman here. Where was she, was she all right? He tried to focus on her as he got to his feet, grasping Minion's shoulder to keep himself steady. Twice in one day now he thought he had lost Minion and each time he felt as though his world had been about to crumble to dust. Why had he suddenly become so emotional like this? Was it the human appearance of Minion's new body, or the fact just how close Minion had come to dying?

He didn't know, and he did _not _like not knowing things so instead of focusing on it he focused on the woman as best as he could.

Turned out the woman was indeed fine, and had done the right thing and had called for the police. She was just getting off the phone, tears streaming down her face, when Megamind approached her to ask if she was all right. Next thing he knew she was the one embracing him, shuddering whispery thanks to him for saving not only her life, but her baby boy who she had just put into his baby seat in the back of her car. The woman rushed from him to Minion, giving him the same kinds of signs of gratitude even if she wasn't all too sure who he was. If she had her mind about her, she would probably assume he was Megamind's sidekick thanks to that large 'M' on his back, but she could be forgiven for not noticing these things.

Thanks to the security cameras in the mall the security guards were soon rushing up to the scene, and it wasn't at all long until the area was taped off to the public. The police were soon there, taking photographs of the scene; the bullet lodged in the wall, the dropped gun, a glowing blue cube, and the knife, which had dropped and almost fallen under the car. The woman, named Sharon, was standing to the side now, holding her seven-month-old baby, who had magically slept through the whole thing. Megamind and Minion were, naturally, praised by everyone for being there and taking quick action.

Minion, totally unused to this kind of praise, turned emerald-green and looked down at his feet whilst Megamind basked in the praise like a professional. Cameras were already there, photographs were being snapped, and all the while Minion stood behind his boss feeling awkward and out of place.

In front of cameras, that wasn't who he was. Even when Megamind had been a villain, he was the guy working in the background, the one to put the machines together, who painted giant X's on things, and made sure that things were in place. In fact, up until his strutting up Metro City's Main Street to City Hall with Megamind, not many in Metro City had ever laid eyes on him. That's the way he had always liked it.

To suddenly find himself thrust into the limelight was almost as jarring as becoming a human-alien hybrid.

"Megamind?" a familiar voice made its way through the crowd, causing both alien men to lift their gaze to stare at Roxanne, standing there with microphone in hand and accompanied by her new cameraman. "What… Minion? Is that… is this your new… new body?" she asked, staring at the tall, slightly muscular frame that Minion was suddenly in possession of. "Oh, oh wow…! You look. Erm. Impressive!" she complimented.

"Thank you Miss Ritchi," Minion mumbled, embarrassed.

Megamind looked at Roxanne from behind Minion for a moment, before walking around in front of him, setting his hands on his hips. "Ah, Miss Ritchi. Come for an all-out exclusive interview about the daring rescue, I presume?" he asked, arching an eyebrow at her.

Roxanne smiled, amused. "Well, I don't carry a microphone and have a camera with me when I go shoe shopping now, do I?" she asked.

"You don't?" Megamind asked.

"No, no I don't."

"Ah. Right. Of course, I knew that."

"I wouldn't say no to a show like that," Minion piped up. "Shopping with Roxanne Ritchi: Tips and Tricks to Look your Best While on the Spot." He held his hands up in front of his face as if seeing a billboard in the city.

Roxanne giggled, and paused to brush a hair behind one of her ears. "That's sweet of you," she said.

"Just being honest," he replied.

"All right, all right, enough about fashion and shoes and television shows that will never see the light of day." Megamind got between them once again, holding up his hands as if he were a traffic instructor. "We've got work to do!"

"Right away, Sir."

"Right, sure. Yeah let's…" she said as she eyed Minion before turning away to face the camera man, and motioned to him to begin filming.

_To be continued_


	4. Touch and Feel

**Author's Note:** Since it seems necessary for me to make this statement; _yes_, this story will eventually become a Megamind and Minion pairing fiction. If you don't like that pairing I highly suggest you turn back now, less your mind be warped by the horrors that await you.

* * *

><p>"Come on Minion, come on! It'll be starting soon!" Megamind urged, as he hopped from one foot to the other in excitement.<p>

"I don't want to watch!" Minion shouted back from the other side of the door.

"Minion, come on! You'll look amazing on camera and you know it," urged the alien.

"No, Sir!"

"!" sang Megamind, as he rapped his fingers on the door. "Come on! Roxanne interviewed you for a reason."

"I don't want to see it."

On the other side of the door, in the bathroom, Minion was leaning with his back against it and his arms folded over his chest. Across from him was the round mirror that Megamind normally spent at least an hour a day preening in front of. His reflection, that body that he still wasn't used to, was reflected back at him. He scowled at himself, at his underbite, his awkward-looking ears, and his skin tone. These were the sorts of physical traits you could accept on a fish, but on a person?

"Fine, be that way. I'm still going to record it!" Megamind called from beyond the door.

Minion was grateful that his boss hadn't ordered him out there. He heard Megamind walk away, and he pushed himself off the door and approached the mirror, his reflection growing closer with every step, until he was standing right in front of the sink.

He tilted his head, flexed a certain muscle, and his ear slowly moved. If he had still been a fish, the fin would have flared out impressively. Now, though, it was more like a muscle spasm. Minion leaned closer to the glass and opened his mouth wide as he could, to inspect his mouth. His bottom teeth were still slightly big, but at least they were humanlike and no longer sharp and scary-looking. He slowly ran his tongue over his teeth, feeling them, before shutting his mouth again.

"Good-looking?" He echoed the sentiment a few people had given him that day as he looked at himself, trying to see it. He lifted a hand and pushed it through his black hair, trying to style it, but it kept bouncing back to that ridged look that reminded him of the lights on his fish body.

"Hrm." He frowned and tried styling it again with his fingers, but the hair stubbornly refused. He wondered what he'd look like bald, but that look was managed quite well by his boss, and he didn't want to intrude upon his 'bald' territory.

His boss...

Minion had put him through so much that morning. Refusing to listen to his orders when the machine had been just about to explode, hiding in the water when he had fallen in, and when that gun had gone off. He had been truly terrified at that last instance, though. That man under his grasp, trying to aim the weapon and pull the trigger... for the briefest of seconds, Minion had thought he'd been shot. He hadn't, thank God, and how Megamind had grabbed at him, feeling him to see if he was all right and then...

His memory took him back to the moment almost instantly. Megamind throwing his arms around him, pressing himself in close. And how he had buried his face in his shoulder like that. Minion felt a tingle rush up his spine, and his face grew hot and turned emerald at the mere memory of it.

_Why?_

Sure, it had been a milestone. Megamind had never touched his skin to Minion's before, but did that warrant this kind of reaction?

He...cared about his boss, deeply. Of course he did; he was the sole purpose behind his very existence. Fish like him were born and bred to serve one master and one master only, for the entirety of their lives. There was a bond between them that was unbreakable, unmovable, hence why that night he had run away from Megamind it had felt like his heart had been shattering. Why he had sought him out only the day after, going to the one place he knew Megamind would go to because he knew him so _well._

But why was it that his face was turning a deep shade of emerald and the freckles on his forehead were brightening at the memory of Megamind's blue skin against his green? His stomach was doing something he wasn't familiar with, and for a moment he felt as though he might have to use the toilet again, but it wasn't _that_... and thank heavens. The toilet was a new experience, and Minion did NOT like it at all.

He heard the news music starting up through the door, but remained staring at himself in the mirror. His face was still green, his mind still focused on feeling his boss's breath against his pointed ear, and the absolute concern and worry for his well-being in his voice. This stirred something deep within the fish-man; a new feeling he had never felt before.

It was like... fire, but an internal one, burning to a point, yet didn't seem to help fix anything at all. Gripping the sink, Minion bent forward and glared down at the taps for something to glare at, before he realized something in his anatomy was not acting the way it should.

Megamind turned his head when he heard a startled cry echoing from the bathroom, and the sound of somebody (Minion, obviously) falling over. He began to get up, but heard Minion cry out, "I'M FINE!"

Narrowing an eye, Megamind turned around to look back at the multiple televisions that were suspended on the wall. They were going on about the initial explosion, again, talking about the damage it had done to the immediate area. 'Experts' were claiming this was further proof that Megamind was a ticking time bomb, and had to be watched. The alien glowered as he leaned down against the console, eyes narrowed. Bad-mouthing him when he was a villain was expected, for what good was it being a bad guy if nobody shunned your name on public television? Yet the fact they were bad-mouthing him when he was now the hero of the city made him feel horrible.

"In related news to the explosion at Megamind's Lair, it seems as though science has had an unexpected breakthrough," the news reporter said, as a small photograph appeared over her left shoulder. It was a picture taken that day of Megamind, walking along a path with Minion, who had a question mark stuck over his face for _some_ reason. To keep people curious? "As a result of the explosion, Megamind's faithful companion Minion has become what you might call the new fish-man about town!"

Megamind tilted his head slightly as he watched the image on the multiple screens switch to video footage taken that very day in the park. It was of the two just walking along the path together, Minion carrying his boots. It must have been taken right after he had gotten up from rolling along the grass, if Megamind's amazing memory served him right and it _always did._

"Now an impressive six foot one, Minion was seen in multiple locations today, as always accompanied by Megamind. It seemed that fate itself was smiling upon the fish, since he and his boss apprehended a criminal attempting to carjack a woman at Metro City Shopping Mall around three-fifteen this afternoon. We take you now to pre-recorded interview with Roxanne Ritchi."

The image changed again, and sure enough there they all were, standing off to the side of the crime scene. Megamind, of course, looked amazing on screen with his hands on his hips like that, while Roxanne was talking into the microphone at the cameraman. Minion, meanwhile, stood behind Megamind with the look of a fish-man who wasn't certain as to whether or not he wanted to be there.

"Megamind, seems like you were in the right place at the right time again," Roxanne said into her microphone before holding it out to the blue man to answer.

"I'm always in the right place at the right time, Miss Ritchi," Megamind replied smoothly, arching a brow at her before looking at the camera. "Let that be a warning to all evil-doers out there, too."

"I'm sure they take that into account," she smiled, before looking up at Minion, as did the cameraman. "And Minion! You were a vital participant in disarming the criminal, is that correct?"

It zoomed in on Minion's face, and the fish-man continued to look like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming eighteen-wheeler. Megamind jabbed him in the stomach and Minion coughed, ears flicking out quickly before pinning back flat against the sides of his head. "R-right!" he answered.

"A bit reckless in your new body though, don't you think? I don't think you, or anyone, would like to see you get injured on your first day out in it." Roxanne smiled, and Megamind caught for just a fraction of a second the way the woman had looked over Minion's body before looking back up to his face.

His hand holding his remote suddenly tightened so dramatically the edges of the device pinched his palm. Was she... was she checking Minion _out?_ On _public television?_ It was only then Megamind realized that some people in the crowd, behind them were doing the exact same thing. Some women had their phones out, but they seemed to be pointed directly at Minion's behind rather than anything else.

While Megamind admitted Minion's new body was... good to look at, they should have enough common sense to not do this sort of thing on television!

"N-no. I don't think, think so," Minion answered shakily, tapping his fingers together.

"And what a body!" somebody shouted from the crowd, and there was some hoots, hollers, and cheers.

Minion drew in closer to Megamind, as if standing closer to him would cloak him from public view.

"Seems like everyone's pretty pleased with it, Minion, and with you for assisting Megamind in this arrest. Well done to both of you, and we hope to see more of the two of you in the news for _good_ reasons from here on in. This is Roxanne Ritchi reporting, coming up next-"

Megamind turned the televisions off with a press of a single red button on the controls. He found it slightly amusing how so many people had been so keen on Minion's new body, but at the same time he didn't like how they had embarrassed the fish-man. Minion had rarely been one to show up for the camera, much less be the one filmed like he had. At least his first time in front of the camera hadn't been too embarrassing? Speaking of which... Megamind turned around to look at the bathroom door, which still seemed to be shut.

He tossed his cape back as he strolled up to the door, and knocked on it. "Minion?" he asked. "You can come out now, the seg_mint_ has been on," he said through the door.

"G-gn-th-that's good Sir!" Minion answered through the door. "I-I'm just in-inthemiddleofsomething!"

"In the middle of something?" Megamind asked, pulling back with a confused look on his face. "What are you doing in there?" He reached for the door knob cautiously.

"Don't come in! Don't come in!" came the frantic gasping of the fish-man. "I'm fine Sir, I'm fine, just please give me a moment!"

Megamind stood at the door and withdrew his hand, furrowing his brow. "Well, all right, if you say so..." he said, since he had never heard Minion sound like this before. It had been a hectic day for the two of them, no doubt he needed some time to just gather himself. He knew that feeling... so he patted the door. "All right. Don't be too long, I have to go in there soon."

"Y-yes Sir."

The blue alien shrugged to himself and walked away from the bathroom door, towards the kitchen area of the lair, which was more or less just the fridge, stove, and sink all along the same table that ran the length of the lair. They liked to live simply, after all, and whenever Minion would bake and cook he would bring out the study desks from the planning room and use them to set all his food on.

Megamind hummed 'Highway to Hell' as he opened the fridge and pulled out a wrapped chicken and cheese sandwich, and was about to bite into it when a specialized Brain Bot hovered to him.

"Mail!" it announced, blue dome glowing.

"Mail?" Megamind asked.

"Mail!"

"Mail!" Megamind then grinned as he walked over to a screen on the wall and pressed the lone green button to spark it to life. Being the in-touch superhero that he was, Megamind had set up a mail account for any 'fan mail' to be sent through directly, and whenever he got something the Mail Bot would let him know. He was surprised to see so many suddenly stream into the inbox, most of them seemed to have the name 'Minion' in the title bar. "Hrmm." He frowned as he pressed the touch screen buttons and brought up the first message.

"Minion." He read aloud, "You look so hot. I like your ears. Ex. Oh. Ex. Oh. Sara."

Megamind scoffed and moved onto the next one. "Oh Em Gee Minion, you make one sexy human. Are you single?"

He gasped at the question and moved onto the next, forgetting his sandwich completely as he began to read the multitude of messages for the fish. His eyes scanned the emails that were littered with words like 'hot', 'sexy', 'amazing', 'doable', 'single', and other such phrases. Megamind's face was flushed violet by the time he reached the end of them and pulled away from the screen. Where were these kinds of emails when Minion was a fish? He had been a fantastic fish then, why was it only now that people were paying this kind of attention to him?

The body.

Humans could be so superficial. You could have the kindest soul in the world, but if you had a face nobody liked, they would barely give you any time at all. Yet as soon as a pretty face, or pretty body, came into the equation, you would be drowning in compliments. It just didn't feel right, not right at all... but it certainly didn't have anything to do with the fact that Megamind was jealous of this kind of praise, or the fact that he found himself agreeing just the tiniest, littlest bit.

He all but jumped a foot when the door to the bathroom suddenly opened and Minion came walking, no, _floating_, out of it and shut the door behind him. Megamind glanced at him and momentarily wondered if he should tell him about the emails. Minion had been embarrassed out there in the crowd, hearing what those people said. If he read them, that easygoing look on his face would be replaced by nerves and embarrassment. Quickly, Megamind hit the 'Delete All Messages' button, and the inbox went blank.

"Feeling better?" he asked.

"Hhuuhhh?" Minion asked vaguely. He approached his boss, but careened to the side to grab a drink of water. "Oh. Oh, yeah. I'm... I'm much better," he answered.

"Well, good," Megamind said. "Are you hungry, or are you full from all the food we ate today?" he asked.

Minion smacked his lips together before touching his stomach. "I think I'm good."

"Good, great. Perfect." Megamind smacked his hands together before realizing he had forgotten his cheese and chicken sandwich, and retrieved it from the bench. "You looked great on the news, by the way," he added, grinning slightly.

The fish-man flushed, but smiled in gratitude. "You're just saying that, Sir."

"No really! The camera really captured your...Minion-ness," Megamind finished lamely, since he had suddenly become incredibly blank in the brain department as to how to compliment the fish-man without sounding like one of those creepy emails he had just eradicated off the face of the planet.

"Now I know you're lying." Minion grinned toothily.

"Bah, try to hand out compliments and look at where it gets you!" Megamind threw his hands into the air. Luckily he didn't release his grip on the sandwich, though a piece of cheese did end up falling to the floor. Minion quickly bent down to pick it up, and put it in the bin. "Anyway. Think I'm going to go turn in for the night. It's been a cra-hay-zee day," he said. He turned and began to walk away, but paused after a few steps to look back at Minion, who was drinking a glass of water. "...I am glad you're all right, Minion."

"I know, Sir."

"...Good."

With that, Megamind left the room, making his way to the door that led to a side room, which was Megamind's bedroom. It was moderately sized, surprisingly, with a queen-sized bed pressed up against one side of the room. Megamind found it impossible to sleep on a bed that didn't have a side of it against the wall, thanks to his years of growing up in prison. The mattress was hardly the best, old and lumpy, but like the position of the bed, it worked for the villain, since the beds in prison were hardly ideal and fluffy. In fact, when Roxanne had prompted him to get a brand new mattress, Megamind had found the task of lying on all the soft, comfortable mattresses in the store outright disturbing.

Minion wished him goodnight again before glancing around the lair. There was dust everywhere still, and he sighed to himself before going to his faithful drawer where he kept his aprons. His poor 'Kiss the Cook' one had been burned to shreds in the explosion, so he pulled out a black and white checkered apron reading 'Hot Buns' with a picture of a single bun beneath the text. He tied it on over his black clothing, found his faithful bucket, mop, and duster, and got down to work. The fish-man half sang, half hummed 'Crazy Train' as he worked, making sure to pick up the dust on either his mop or dust pan, since a dirty lair was an unhappy lair. Plus it smelt horrible, with the dust still in the air.

It took him a few hours work, but Minion soon wrung out the mop for the last time in the sink, and turned to look over the lair. The floor was nice and clean, the walls and ex-evil devices were no longer caked with grime, and even the Invisible Car had been given a good waxing.

He nodded his head proudly and removed his apron, folding it over his arms, and only paused in order to yawn loudly. "Guess I should turn in too," he mumbled to himself, lifting a hand to wipe his eyes, but then stopped short.

Where was he going to sleep?

His poor suit, in which he normally slept, was still a wrecked mess, and he wouldn't be capable of fitting into his lovely little castle _now_. Maybe the Invisible Car? After checking, Minion was annoyed to discover he couldn't lay down in the back seat because he was too tall. Plus, he figured it would be Hell on his new spine, and he didn't want to mess it up too early. Even the couch seemed a bad idea, since he could remember when Megamind would fall asleep on it and wake up with a sore neck and shoulder.

Huffing, the fish looked around, unsure of where he could sleep. It looked as though he had bought his new pajamas (little green fish on blue) for nothing, since he couldn't very well sleep on the floor.

An idea wormed itself into his head and buried itself deeply between his lobes, and Minion's eyes widened at what it was suggesting. He turned his head, slowly, to look at the door that led to Megamind's bedroom. Dare he? It wouldn't be the first time that he and his Sir would have shared a bed together... in fact, growing up in prison, Minion would always end up snuggled up against Megamind's chest in the middle of the night, but that was back when he was just a little glowing fish in a glass ball. He wasn't a fish anymore; he was a very tall man who would need room to sleep. Could Sir's bed even offer him enough room? What if he hogged the blankets? Kicked Sir out of bed?

There were many 'what ifs', but he saw no other choice. After collecting his new pajamas from the bag they were still in, and swallowing hard, Minion made his way to the bedroom door and gently knocked. "I-I'm sorry Sir a-are you awake?"

He heard a low groan from the other side of the door, and the sound of sheets moving. Darn! He should have known Sir would be sleeping by now! The fish-man was just about to turn and walk away from the door when he heard an answer. "Whassamattah?"

"Can I come in?" Minion asked, and then jumped as the door was suddenly pulled open. There stood Megamind, in his hazard sign pajamas and bat slippers. "Y-you didn't have to getup!" he spluttered.

"Wassa?" Megamind asked, rubbing one eye with the back of his hand. "Issa signal on?"

"Oh uh, n-no Sir. No, it isn't that," Minion replied, nervously glancing over his shoulder to just make doubly sure the signal that the police used now and then wasn't lighting up the night sky. If it was, that meant they were needed for a special matter that needed urgent attendance. Seeing how it wasn't, though, Minion turned back to stare at his boss. "I just... uhh... hrm." He looked down at his hands, and tapped his forefingers together. "I don't really know how to exactly ask this. I don't want to make you uncomfortable. But fact of the matter is, Sir, that I...I..." He trailed into silence awkwardly.

"Just spit it out, Minion," Megamind glowered.

"I need somewhere to sleep, and I was wondering if I could sleep with you, Sir. If, if that's all right. Sorry, I know. It's stupid, I can sleep on the floor. Sorry for bothering you Sir, you go back to sleep now." Minion backed away quickly and turned to leave, but found that impossible, since Megamind had suddenly grabbed at his wrist and the skin-on-skin contact gave the fish-man shivers that halted his feet.

"You can't wake me, mumble that, then leave, Minion," Megamind grumbled as he began to tug the fish-man into his room. "Get in. But NO hogging the covers."

"Y-yes. Yes sir," Minion answered, as Megamind kicked his slippers off and climbed beneath the covers until only just the top of his head was visible. The fish-man stood there momentarily, before glancing down at himself and realizing he was still wearing his black leather clothes; no good for sleeping. The pajamas in his hands were suddenly tossed onto the bed and he crouched down in order to remove his socks and boots. Once this was done, he grabbed the shirt and began to peel it up and over his head.

Megamind lifted his head for a moment and opened his eyes, and found himself staring at the striking green skin that was on display. Minion wasn't overly muscular like Metro Man, nor was he flabby like Hal, nor slender and slim like himself. He had some definite muscle structure happening, and Megamind watched, further intrigued by the fact that Minion would obtain such a body. How? Was it Metro Man's DNA? Did that mean Minion might have superpowers and just not know about it? He would have to run some further tests tomorrow, but not before shutting his eyes and pretending to be resting again by the time Minion tugged the shirt off and began pulling the pajama top on.

The fish-man removed his pants and underwear before pulling on the pajama bottoms, and cautiously approached the bed. He'd never slept in a bed and felt the mattress or bedding before. Cautiously, he reached over and pulled back some of the blanket, and began to ease himself into the bed. Minion couldn't complain about the mattress being lumpy, or old, since he had never felt such a thing before. He smiled broadly, though, and looked at Megamind, who was on his side, eyes shut, and looked exceptionally peaceful.

That was something that just seemed to happen with the alien. No matter how evil he used to act throughout the day, no matter how many times he tried to take over the city and destroy Metro Man, whenever he shut his eyes to sleep he looked practically angelic.

Minion got comfortable on his side as well, so he was facing his boss, and smiled faintly. "Goodnight, Sir," he whispered.

"Nnghnight," Megamind answered, half mumbling.

The fish-man shut his eyes and sighed heavily, pulling the blanket closer around himself as he tried to adjust to the fact he wasn't sleeping in his castle anymore. The closeness of the walls brought him comfort and familiarity. In this bed, with just a blanket around him, he felt a little exposed. So it wasn't at all that startling when, at some time during the night, Minion ended up snuggling right up against his boss and even went so far as to throw an arm over him. Megamind, in return, tilted his head into the chest of his sleeping companion, both oblivious to the late night snuggling that was going on.

At least, until morning came.

_To be continued_


	5. Good Morning Sir

The warmth of the blankets was everywhere, and Minion felt as though he could very well catch on fire from just how much heat they were giving off. Had he always felt this hot in the bed, or was it something else? The fish-man's head felt cloudy, as if he was walking through a thick fog on an early morning in winter, but he couldn't feel any cold, or biting wind like one would expect. Instead, he felt hands; soft, small hands pushing against him, and that seemed enough to help clear the fog that was his mind.

A shuddering gasp was ripped from his mouth as he felt those hands grip against his still-new body. One was at his lower back, and the other was lost, tangled, in his thick black hair that still refused to listen to reason and stuck up in various directions. Minion shivered at the touch as his own hands reached out and found a warm body close to his own, alarmingly close, and bare as his own was.

Then there was a kiss. A biting, harsh thing that seemed to want to crush and own his mouth, and Minion would gladly lay down anywhere to allow this to continue. It was electric; it was as if he could feel the shockwaves rocking through his body, awakening every inch of him, until there was no longer any fog to speak of.

The small, blue hand that was gripping at his side suddenly pushed downwards with greater need, with hunger, with purpose that had Minion breaking away from the deepening kiss to arch his back and cry out, and try to catch his breath. But every time it felt as though he was about to get his hands around it, his breath would be gone... it was like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands, in the dark, and you were blind-folded on top of that. It was impossible.

Minion swallowed harshly, trying to gain control, but it seemed as though his body, and the one of the small, blue man pressing against him in such delicious ways, were refusing to allow such a thing to happen. He shut his brown eyes tightly and bared his teeth, and arched his head back as that wandering hand found a very suitable place to settle.

But just as soon as that touch occurred, Minion's eyes snapped open.

He still felt warm; ridiculously warm to the point of sweating, and the blankets had been partly kicked off of the two aliens at some point during the night. Heart pounding and head reeling, Minion tried to clear his mind all over again, just like he had in that... that _very_ strange dream he had just awoken from.

But he found this impossible, since he was now lying on his back, and his boss was laying on top of him. Not only that, but he was literally wrapped around the fish-man in some places. His thin blue legs dug tightly into Minion's sides. One of his arms had reached up and was lost somewhere beneath the pillow that Minion was using, while the other was trapped beside them.

This shouldn't have come as such a huge surprise to the fish-man, really. He recalled years ago, when Megamind had suffered an especially humiliating and soul crushing defeat by Metro Man, that he had offered to keep his Sir company through the night. Megamind had scoffed at the idea, of course, stating that an evil genius didn't need to be babysat by a fish in a gorilla suit. Eventually he had given in, and Minion had slept peacefully in his castle within his robot suit, and when he awoke the next morning he found his boss in a similar position to what he was now.

It appeared as though Megamind was a cuddler by nature.

Yet, back then, it hadn't bothered the fish as greatly as it was doing to him now. Back then, he had been a simple fish in a dome of water. Now his body was all flesh and blood, and he could feel the weight, and warmth, of his boss pressing against him no matter how slight it was. Megamind's temple rested against his neck, and he was certain he could feel the alien's breath against his skin, causing his new hair to stand up on end.

This was _not_ helping his situation at all. What situation was that? The one happening down in his pajama bottoms, that's what. Like the day before, the same occurrence was happening all over again, only this time he wasn't in the privacy of the bathroom to deal with it. He was in his boss's bed. With his boss lying on top of him.

"Oh God." Minion strained as he tried to look around the room, as if hoping to see salvation in the form of something, _anything._

He regretted speaking immediately, since Megamind suddenly shifted against him, and made the kinds of sounds a person (human or alien) made when they were waking up. Minion grimaced and bit his top lip as Megamind moved again, only now he was beginning to slowly lift his head from Minion's neck. Why was this suddenly a bad thing? Hadn't having Megamind lying on top of him been the bad thing seconds ago? Minion fretted and watched as his boss very slowly sat up, not on the bed, but on his stomach.

Another thing about Megamind that not many people knew was that he was a slow riser. The blue alien sat up on the firm, warm body beneath him, and arched his back as he yawned loudly. Lifting his hands, he wiped sleepily at his green eyes. Megamind lowered his hands and dug them down against Minion's chest, and opened his eyes sleepily, smacking his lips lazily as he glanced around the room.

"...G-good morning. Sir," Minion finally squeaked, trying to ignore how Megamind's weight was pressing down against him.

"Hnnghh?" Megamind asked vaguely, looking down at Minion as if he hadn't even realized the fish-man was here. The two aliens stared at one another for a moment before Megamind's face suddenly shifted from blue to lavender in seconds flat. He yelped, jumped off of Minion as if he was a cat on a hot tin roof, caught his foot in the blankets, tumbled right off the bed, and landed with a loud thud on the ground.

"SIR!" Minion cried as he sat bolt upright, ignoring the throbbing pain of his 'problem', and climbed off of the bed immediately to help the fallen alien. "Oh my God, Sir, a-are you all right? You didn't hit your head did you?" he asked shakily, making a grab for his boss from where he had fallen.

"N-no," Megamind answered shakily as Minion effortlessly lifted him to his feet as if he was a child. "Minion," he said stiffly.

"Y-yes Sir?" asked the fish-man as he continued checking Megamind for any injuries or bruises.

"Stop that, stop it. I'm fine. Stop it!" Megamind slapped the green hands away before he froze, green eyes widening. "What is that," he said flatly.

"W-what is what, Sir?" Minion asked.

"That. There." The blue alien promptly pointed, his expression turning from one of disgruntled annoyance to curiosity and wonder. "In your-"

"It's nothing!" squeaked the fish as he jumped back, as if he had been hit by an electric bolt.

"Nothing?" Megamind asked, narrowing an eye. "It doesn't look like nothing."

"Well, it is!" Minion shot back.

"Don't use that tone with me!"

"Sorry, Sir! Yes, I'm sorry, Sir!"

"Well, it can't be _nothing_," Megamind mused as he stared at it, stroking his goatee slowly. "Is it an adverse effect of your human body? Are you sick? Oh!" He clapped his hands together, eyes wide. "Are you turning back to a fish?"

"N-no. No, Sir I. I don't think I am," Minion stuttered. "It's. It's a. A part of me, Sir."

"A part of you-oh! Like my tentacles?" he asked, seeming to get it now.

"I. I th-think so?" Minion asked, wanting to find a great big hole to climb into and hide for the rest of his miserable life. He had never felt as embarrassed as he did right now.

"But my tentacles don't do... uh. _That._" Megamind gestured to the problem, which still stubbornly refused to go away no matter how badly and loudly Minion was mentally wishing it away. "So you're obviously not built like me, are you?" he asked, looking up at Minion's emerald-green face. "Perhaps you take after Metro Man's DNA..." he mused.

"Metro Man?"

"Well, it was his leftover DNA that hit you. Not mine," pointed out the blue alien. He took a step towards Minion, who quickly stepped backwards, but his legs hit the bed and he ended up falling backwards onto the mattress. "That reminds me, Minion. You don't feel as though you've developed any superpowers, do you? Ability to fly? Laser vision? Super strength? Super speed...?" he asked, eyes darting down to the 'problem' every now and then before looking back at Minion, who really _did_ wish he was dead now.

"I don't-no, I don't think-if I did, punching that g-guy yesterday would have done real damage..." he stammered. "And why didn't you think to ask me this y-yesterday why are you only-OH MY GOD SIR!" Minion screamed, train of thought well and truly shot into orbit as his boss unceremoniously grabbed his pajama bottoms and pulled them down. The air in the room suddenly felt so very cold against his exposed, sensitive flesh, and yet his face couldn't feel any warmer, nor could his chest.

"Huh," Megamind said quietly, his face remaining fairly blank save for a light flush spreading over his cheeks and nose. "So that's what it looks like." He narrowed an eye in a judging manner as Minion flailed and grabbed the bottoms and began to roughly pull them up over himself again. "Ugly sexual organ, isn't it? What's the point of the hair, exactly? _I_ don't have any hair down there."

"Y-y-you don't h-have ha-hair anyw-where Sir, and please don't do that again!" Minion pleaded, holding the pajama bottoms close to him, eyes still wide. "That was v-very rude!"

"Rude? Rude? _Me?_" Megamind asked, face turning a deeper shade of purple. "It isn't rude! You've been naked all your life! Why are you suddenly freaking out now?" he asked.

"I don't know, but I don't like it!" Minion shot back. "Please don't do it again! Please, Sir! I've never asked you for anything else, but please don't do that ever, ever again!"

Megamind scowled, and set his hands on his hips and sighed in a melodramatic manner. "God, fine! If you want to be such a guppy about everything I won't do that again. But!" He pointed dramatically at the fish-man. "Don't think you're getting out of any research I want to do today. Yesterday was about getting used to your body, today is about scientific research into your abilities and what you can do. Got it?" he asked, eyes narrowed.

"Yes, Sir," Minion said weakly.

"So how does one rid themselves of the uh. Problem?" Megamind asked, glancing down quickly before looking back at Minion.

"I think it'll go away by itself, Sir," Minion lied as he wriggled off of the bed entirely, not about to tell his boss how wonderful it felt to touch himself down there, like he had the day before.

"You don't master-bait?" Megamind asked flat-out, and Minion felt as if his brain suddenly froze. The blue alien stared at him blankly, before rolling his eyes. "I'm not a child, Minion. I _know_ what master-baiting is. Unless you don't know?" he asked, arching a brow. "Wait. Could you even master-bait as a fish?"

"N-no. No I. No," Minion said stiffly, through his clenched teeth.

"Ah! Another first for you then!" Megamind announced enthusiastically.

"Sir, _please,_" begged the fish-man, feeling as though his emerald-green face would never, ever fade. "Can, can I just go? I. I need to go pick up your morning coffee and donuts and everything else, please, please?"

"Oh fine. Fine!" The blue alien waved his hands in a 'shoo' motion. "Go on, then! But brush your teeth before you go!"

"Yes, Sir." Minion flushed as he rushed from the room as quickly as he could.

Minion could swear that his ears were still burning by the time he approached the local coffee and donut joint that he frequented practically every day. While he always insisted to his boss that he could make him his own coffee, Megamind always said he liked the coffee from here better than anything. Plus, the donuts were fresh and hot, and Megamind took great joy in sucking the icing off of his fingers after enjoying one.

Why this sudden thought made Minion's body warm up, he didn't know.

But here he stood in line at the coffee joint, hands hanging by his sides. Already he had been stopped for autographs, and photos, by a few fans. Some girls had even given him their numbers, though he didn't see why... he didn't own a phone. But he was too polite to turn them down outright, so he had stuffed them into his pocket.

He just now approached the front. When the girl behind the cash register lifted her head, Minion was startled to see that he recognized her face.

It was Mary, from the day before. Same blond hair, same blue eyes, but now she was wearing a uniform that matched her fellow coworkers. Minion blinked in recognition before giving her a smile in greeting.

"Good morning, can I take your-Minion?" she asked, blinking in surprise. "Is that really you?"

"Hah, y-yeah it's me," he replied nervously. "I didn't know you worked here?"

"I only just started the other day," Mary replied with a warm, easy smile. "So, what can I get for you, sir?"

"Oh, don't call me _that,_" Minion insisted. All his years coming here, he had insisted everybody just call him Minion. Yes, they had known who he was, that he was the minion of Megamind, but since he had a gentle, sweet disposition and always paid for his coffee and donuts, they never called the cops in on him. The other workers here knew him, and knew better than to call him 'sir' to his face.

"Well, all right, Minion. What can I make you?" she asked, smiling sweetly.

He was about to say 'the regular', but Mary wouldn't know the regular, would she?

"Cinnamon Dolce Soy Chai Tea Latte, extra sugar. And one mocha latte, no sugar," Minion insisted. He pulled his wallet from the fanny pack that he wore on top of his new belt, which his boss had insisted he wear. Naturally, it was studded, and had the M symbol on the belt buckle, just in case nobody could work out who he was, or who he worked for. He handed her the money and got his change, before moving along down the front side of the bar, picking up napkins, then moving on to the donut section to order a baker's dozen, just the way his Sir liked it.

Just where Megamind _put_ all this food was a mystery to most. Minion, though, knew his boss burned off absolutely everything that went into his mouth. Was Megamind ever truly still for any time longer than an hour a day? He would rush around town on patrol, work on some new designs and machines to help defend the city, and all manner of things that would leave any regular person gasping for breath. But not Megamind; his metabolism was something to be marveled over.

"Wow, that's a lot of donuts!" Mary commented when she saw him return for the two coffees.

"Mmhmm. I can't wait to try one," grinned the fish-man, as he lifted the lid to inspect the various flavors of donuts now available to him.

"Didn't you eat them before?" she asked while her co-worker took over the cash register.

"Hm? Oh, well. Yeah. But they were wet," Minion admitted. "Being a fish and all."

"Oh! Right! Sorry, stupid question." Mary laughed.

"No, no. No such thing as stupid questions, don't you know?" Minion replied with a laugh. He glanced at the young man working the coffee machine, and continued to wait patiently.

"So tell me, what does the life of a superhero's sidekick entail normally?" the blond woman asked, clearly curious.

Minion had time to spare, so he smiled at her toothily. "Oh, well, what doesn't it entail? I wake up in the mornings, and the first thing I do is fetch Sir's coffee and donuts like I'm doing now. Then I take them back home to the lair, where he enjoys them while I make his bed. Today I... think I might strip and change the bed, however. After that I do the dishes, and put them away. After that I do the laundry for the past few days, since surprisingly enough we go through a _lot_ of laundry around the lair. Then comes time to help Sir with his plans and plotting on ways to defend the city from evildoers. Lunch is normally after that, and after that I spend a good few hours working on brand new costumes for him, since Sir needs to always look his best, you know? I put a lot of effort into his clothing, since, well, you can hardly call yourself a hero if you don't look the part, right? And throughout the day, if there are any mechanical emergencies I fix them. That includes broken speakers, busted Brain Bots, the usual kind of thing. All between this I work on dinner for Sir, so we end up eating sometime around six o'clock. Once dinner's done we go on patrol around the City until late, then head to bed."

Mary stood there, staring at the fish-man with wide eyes.

"And that's... every day?" she asked.

"Every day." Minion grinned, before gasping, since the boy had finished his coffee order.

"You're not a minion, you're a _mother!_" Mary gasped.

Minion blushed emerald and shrugged his shoulders. "I just do my job, and my job is to take care of him... that's all. Well. It was great seeing you again Mary, but I gotta run. I'll... uh..." he trailed off before smiling nervously. "See you tomorrow?" he asked quietly.

"See you tomorrow." Mary smiled, and waved him off as he left.

"Sir, really. I _can't_ lift this..." Minion complained as he stood in front of some weights that were of ridiculous size.

"You're not even trying!" Megamind said as he chewed on one of the last donuts from the box.

"I am too!" Minion shot back.

"Then put your back into it, Minion! Come on! You've got Metro Man's DNA in you! Who's to say you haven't got power locked away, just waiting to be unleashed upon anybody foolish enough to try and wrong you?" Megamind asked, grinning widely.

"Remember last time you tried to stoke the fires of this sort of thing, Sir?" Minion asked as he bent at the knees and grabbed the weights with his hands. "What happened?"

"You're not some foolish Roxanne-obsessed cameraman, Minion. You're Minion!"

"Speaking of Miss Ritchi, has she called recently?" Minion asked around heavy strains, as he tried to lift the weights even a centimeter off the ground.

Megamind frowned from his seat near the weights, and brought his legs up so they were pressing against his chest slightly. "No. No she hasn't," he said flatly.

"Oh Sir... I thought after our interview yesterday-"

"Well, you thought wrong," the blue alien said, as he wiped his hand on a napkin before nibbling at the icing and sugar that had clung to his fingers. "Miss Ritchi has made it p-painfully obvious now. She's been toying with my little not-so-black heart for long enough. She's not interested. But you know what?" Megamind got down off of his chair. "That's her loss!"

"Her loss?" Minion asked, abandoning the task of lifting the weights.

"Yes! Her loss! I mean, who _wouldn't_ want to get with all this?" Megamind gestured to himself, before going so far as to flex his arms as if he were suddenly muscular. "I'll tell you who, Minion, nobody! Miss Ritchi had her chance, and now it's gone."

"So what are you going to do now, Sir?" asked the fish-man, not sure he was enjoying what he was hearing. While it was good to hear that his Sir was no longer moping and feeling miserable about Miss Ritchi's treatment of his feelings and heart, it was worrying to see him undergo such a sudden and volatile reaction.

"I'm going to be me," Megamind replied in a matter-of-fact tone. "I don't need anybody to be happy, I mean. I mean, anybody except you, Minion. I don't. I don't really think I could manage if you left."

Minion made a sad little sound before walking over to his boss, and punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Sir, you _know_ I'm not going to be going anywhere."

Megamind smiled faintly, before he lifted a hand and punched Minion in the arm, mirroring the fish-man's gesture seconds earlier. "Well, good. Now!" he clapped his hands back together, rubbing them together eagerly. "Let's get back to work! Now, lift those weights!"

"Oh Sir..."

_To be continued_


	6. Settling into new Skin

"It's been over a month now since the disastrous explosion that rocked lower Metro City, and the ultimate reveal of what kind of effect it had on the alien superhero Megamind's faithful sidekick, Minion. And Metro City appears to be still reeling from just what has become of the used-to-be fish, since he never makes an appearance without wearing something brand new that, let's be honest now, does wonders for his new body."

Megamind had to roll his eyes so dramatically he was lucky he didn't strain a muscle somewhere, as he listened to the television that was on in the distance while he worked on the Invisible Car's engine. Was it really that big a deal that Minion busied himself in his downtime with designing something new to wear? Minion was a gifted fish-man when it came to designing and sewing new clothes, and he just hadn't found the _one_ for himself.

It had taken them over two years for Megamind and Minion to discover how great he looked in spikes, leather, and spandex, as well as how great he looked in all three at once. But they weren't evil anymore, and even though Megamind had stuck to his trademark outfit, Minion wanted something to express who he was, and what he was all about.

Still, it was getting annoying. Whenever Megamind would walk into the sewing room, he'd find an almost-naked Minion trying on something new.

"Argh, curse my lack of a third arm!" Megamind suddenly complained loudly as his wrench knocked a cable loose on the car. It seemed it was full of disgusting gunk, as it began to leak out over the engine. But if he let go of what he was working on, it would be an even _bigger_ mess. "Minion!" he called over his shoulder. "Put down that cake and help me!"

"Coming, Sir!" Minion rushed up to his boss, wearing his default black spandex outfit complete with belt and goggles. He reached over his boss and fought with the slippery cable. As he reached forward more, he realized he probably should have come up to the car from the side rather than from right behind his boss, since Megamind was now firmly pressed against his front.

"Hurry up." Megamind strained as he felt Minion's weight, and shape, suddenly bearing down upon him.

Cable reconnected, Minion pulled away, face a rich emerald, and rushed back to the 'kitchen' section of the lair. His cake, which he had just been removing from the oven, was still waiting where he left it. Replacing his bat oven mitts (complete with little wings), Minion pulled it out and set it on the table before gently nudging the oven door shut with his foot.

A month... has it really been that long? Minion could hardly believe that so much time had passed. For a while he had been a little worried that the effects would wear off and that one morning he would awake to find himself a flopping, drying out fish. But it seemed as though that wasn't the case. Megamind explained why that was so, but he couldn't wrap his head around all the large scientific words. He had assumed it was because, unlike Hal, Minion hadn't been given a tablet infused with Metro Man's DNA, but rather he'd been _bathed_ in the stuff. Like meat that had been smoked. Not a great way to explain it, but Minion got it.

So he was stuck as a fish-man forever, since there really was no way to defuse the DNA that had altered his body. This had been a shock to him to learn at the time, since he had honestly missed being a fish. He hated getting breathless, how his muscles would ache after a busy day of work, or how he was more susceptible to disease and illness and injury. There were upsides, though; he could touch and feel things he never could before. He could feel the rain on his face, the warm breeze ruffling his hair, the touch of material, cold, heat... all sorts of things normal people took for granted. He would never forget the feeling of the grass against his skin for the first time...

Nor the feeling of his boss's skin against his own.

That one was exceptionally special, and he would hold it close in his heart forever. And it seemed as though, even after a month, he and his boss still hadn't gotten around to buying him his own bed. Every night Megamind would smack his head in annoyance at forgetting, promise that the next day they would buy Minion his own bed, before the two aliens would hop into bed together to ultimately end up clinging to one another come morning. Well, at least Megamind no longer questioned what Minion's body was _doing_ anymore.

Deep down, Minion hoped his boss never bought him his own bed.

Mary kept insisting that it was unhealthy to keep such an obsession with his boss, but he insisted right back that it wasn't an obsession. He cared about his boss, he cared for him with his whole body, mind, and soul, and nothing would ever change that. She would laugh, and gently punch his shoulder with an understanding, warm look. The young woman from the coffee and donut shop had become a good friend over the past month as well; every morning when Minion would go into the shop, she would be there cleaning tables, taking orders, or making them, and she would always take a moment to smile at him and wave in greeting.

They would talk for as long as they could manage around her busy schedule, though it always felt as though there was never enough time. This was annoying, to both of them.

One morning, Minion had returned with the coffee and donuts later than he would have thought appropriate, and Megamind was annoyed about it all.

"Honestly, Minion, I might have _died_ from starvation!" Megamind said as he pulled the boxes of donuts out of Minion's grasp.

"I find that highly unlikely, Sir," Minion mumbled.

"Huh. So what took you so long this time?" he asked as he lifted the lid on his coffee, and was annoyed to see it wasn't hot like he liked it. Grabbing a ray gun he'd made, he pointed it to the cup, and immediately the drink boiled to the desired temperature. "Still chatting up the ladies?" Megamind asked, and certainly not with an annoyed tinge to his voice.

"N-no," Minion replied stubbornly.

"No? Minion, don't lie to me. I've seen how some of the women look at your body when we're out. I'm not a total blind _moran_."

"Moron, Sir."

"Oh, so you think I am?" Megamind asked, eyes narrowed.

"No! No, Sir no! I don't think you're a moron! I just-oh. No, no I wasn't 'chatting up' anyone. I was talking to Mary," Minion finally admitted.

"Mary? Who's Mary? Who is she?"

"She's... uh. A friend. I guess?" Minion asked.

"A friend," Megamind echoed the statement flatly.

"Yes, Sir. She works at the coffee place, we, we talk when I make my order," the fish-man admitted.

"Every day?"

"Every day."

"You've talked to this girl, every single day, for how long?"

"A month, Sir."

Megamind stared at Minion with a look that made the fish-man uncomfortable. "W-what is it, Sir? Can't I have a friend besides yourself and Miss Ritchi?" he asked.

The alien wanted to shout 'No', but he forced himself to remain still, and quiet. Why was it he suddenly felt jealous of a woman he didn't even know? Minion wasn't with her all the time; he was with him most of the time, and that's what mattered wasn't it? But Minion had been taking longer, and longer, with bringing coffee and donuts each morning. He claimed he wasn't chatting up any girl, but now he says he's been 'chatting' with a girl. That's one word away from chatting up! Did Minion like her? As in _like_ her, and was keeping it secret from him? He must be, otherwise he would have mentioned this Mary ages ago!

"If you like her so much, you should just go out with her," Megamind heard himself say.

"Go out-Sir!" Minion gasped, wounded.

"Well, why not? Is that not how things work?" asked the alien as he grabbed another donut greedily. "You meet a girl, you talk a lot, you end up going out, falling in love, and running away to be beautifully and happily ever after," Megamind ranted, and once he was done he took a bite out of his donut.

Minion frowned, insulted by what his boss was saying. Granted, he did like Mary's company and found her fun to talk to, but she was certainly not his Sir. But now Megamind was saying mean, hateful things, and they wounded the fish-man deeply. "You know what? Maybe I will ask her out!" Minion announced loudly. "Yeah, I, I'll ask her out and we'll go somewhere great!"

"Good, great, fine! I'm happy for you," Megamind lied.

"So am I!" Minion lied right back.

And that was how Minion came to be sitting on a park bench with Mary on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon. She had been delighted when he asked if she would like to catch up outside her work hours, and had jumped at the chance. Minion couldn't fight the nerves bubbling in his stomach since his boss had merely huffed a 'have fun' comment when he had left that afternoon. He didn't like being on bad terms with Megamind at the best of times, but being here and not helping him around the base, or in case of any evil in town, felt... strange.

"You seem tense, Minion," Mary said. "Are you sure it's all right to be here?"

"Hm?" Minion blinked out of his thoughts, and smiled. "Oh, sure! Of course it is!"

"Well, good. I'd hate to see you get in trouble; you're such a nice fish. Uh. Man. Fish-man?" she asked nervously.

"Fish-man works." Minion smiled.

"Awesome. So, what're we gonna do?" she asked. "I know you can't bike ride, so we can leave that out. How about a movie? Or a walk through town?"

"Ooh, a movie. Is there anything new showing?" Minion asked, smiling hopefully.

"I'm sure we'll find something."

"I mean, I can't believe it. Can you believe it? I can't believe how much attention he's getting! It's like, it's like I don't even exist anymore! All these people talk about is Minion this, Minion that, hair this, clothing that. It's like I don't even save this city anymore, since all they talk about is his junk and what it may look like! Don't you people have anything more important to report on, like, oh I don't know, ME stopping Hot Flash in her latest attempt to burn the city to the ground? No? Hah! I don't know why I bother!"

Roxanne sat there in her loft, sipping her cup of coffee as the hero of the city stormed back and forth, ranting and raving over the fact his fish-man minion had a date and he didn't. She found this incredibly amusing as well as adorable.

"People are interested in him, Megamind. You can't fault them for that," Roxanne said gently as she could, but still with a firmness there so he would listen to her.

"Well, good on them!" Megamind spat back.

"Megamind, stop being jealous. Green isn't your colour," Roxanne said flatly.

"Jealous? _Jealous?_ HAH!" he scoffed. "I am NOT jealous!"

"So why did you come over here, then? It wasn't to do anything else, that's for sure. Minion has been the only thing you've talked about since walking through the door. What's so wrong with him finding somebody to spend some time with who isn't you?" she asked.

Megamind came to a stop and looked at her, sitting there in her sweats and holding her coffee mug. He clenched his fists by his side before turning away, and gazed out her window that looked out over Metro City. It felt like only yesterday he had come up here begging for her help in his ripped up Black Mamba... "Because he might leave me."

Roxanne felt the knife of guilt stab its way into her heart and twist painfully deeper. She sighed, and set the mug down and got to her feet. "Minion won't leave you, Megamind."

"He will if he finds someone," Megamind said as he stared past his own reflection in the glass. "He'll want to spend all his time with her."

"Does he really operate like that, though?" Roxanne asked. "He was a fish for so long, and a pretty faithful one at that..."

"It's all changed. He's human now. He has desires. Wants that he didn't have before. All this DNA in his body it, it's screwed him up! Yes, he's still Minion, and yet there's so many things different now," Megamind explained tiredly, lifting a hand to rub at the bridge of his nose. "I don't... I don't want to be alone."

"You won't be," she said soothingly as she reached out and touched his arm. He flinched, but didn't pull away from her.

"What if she hurts him?" Megamind asked. "What if... what if they do get close, they fall in love, but what if she falls out of it? What if she realizes that it's wrong or, or thinks they don't fit and stops seeing him? I can't. I can't go and cube her like I want to, but I couldn't let her get away with the law of not breaking his heart."

"If that happens then he'll have you there to help him through it," Roxanne said gently. "Just like he was there for you. Am I right?"

The look he gave her told her she had mentioned maybe a little too much, and she let him go, apologizing with body language. She knew how badly it had hurt him when she had broken it off with him, but it hadn't been easy for her either. Roxanne liked Megamind, she cared about him deeply as a friend, but not as a lover. Their personalities just continued to bump heads against each other. While sometimes he would act like a mature grown man, at a flip of a coin he was like a child, reminding her just how different the two of them were.

And let's not even mention anatomy. She didn't even know what he had; any time she had tried to be intimate with him he had broken out in a powerful blush, spluttering and squirming and ending up falling out of the bed. While Roxanne was a gentle and patient woman, she realized Megamind hadn't been meant to be anything more to her than a friend. It still broke her heart, though, when she talked about it. Why couldn't she adore him as much as he obviously adored her?

"Look... he has a right to be happy, doesn't he?" Roxanne asked.

"Yes..." Megamind sighed, hating to admit it. "More than anyone."

"So be happy for him, Megamind. Be his friend, be there for him, and be happy if anything comes from this."

Megamind stared out at the city some more, as if looking for something. He chewed his bottom lip before shutting his eyes on a small, sad sound. "Why aren't I ever enough?"

Roxanne's heart went out to him, as did her arms, and she was soon enveloping him in a hug, and didn't care that his spikes were prodding her arms. They luckily weren't sharpened to a tip at their ends, but it was still an odd feeling, embracing a man in spikes. Megamind seemed to freeze a moment, before he leaned into the embrace and wrapped his own arms around her shoulders.

"You _will_ be enough for somebody. And that person is going to be the luckiest person in the world," Roxanne whispered to him.

When she said that, only one person seemed to appear in his mind. There stood Minion, wearing one of his aprons and holding a freshly baked pastry. He turned to look over his shoulder and smiled brightly, happy to see his boss, his friend. Megamind opened his eyes as he held onto her closely, hearts beating in painful throbs within his chest and brain. A warmth spread over him that he hadn't felt in so, so long. The last time this kind of feeling had filled him had been when he thought of Roxanne all those months ago. He had fallen for her so quickly, maybe he had always loved her but had been too naive and childish to realize it. That feeling was something else now, what he felt for her, but this feeling of total adoration and love and wanting to do any and everything to see him smile, laugh, and to wake up in his bed with him in the mornings just like he had been doing for over a month...

It finally struck him like a mallet to the head.

_My God,_ he thought to himself. _I'm in love with my best friend._

"You know, I've never met a guy who wanted to sit through a romantic comedy in all my life," Mary grinned as she, and Minion, exited the cinema after the movie was over and done with. The fish-man was carrying what was left of the popcorn in one of his hands, popping one or two into his jaws as they walked down the street.

"Really?" the fish-man asked before scoffing. "Well, that's just stupid. What's better than love and laughter?"

"Oh now see, that's the kind of stuff that would have any girl fall for you straight away, so be careful!" she grinned.

"Huh." Minion blinked in surprise. He was just being honest, yet all the time Mary told him it was a mystery why he hadn't gotten a million proposals over email yet. How was he to know that his boss had a habit of nuking every single such message with a filter system he had created? He blushed emerald and shrugged. "Well, I'm just being honest..."

"Cooks, cleans, sews, listens, understanding, funny, not hung up on being all macho..." Mary listed on her fingers as they walked, before narrowing an eye at him. "You're like... the perfect man."

"Even with my appearance?" he asked. "I mean. I'm not human..."

"No you're not, and I find that far more interesting than human men," she answered on a smile. "I've really began looking forward to my job in the mornings now. Do you know why?" she asked.

"Why?" Minion asked.

He was suddenly pulled down, and the woman pressed her lips over his own. He could suddenly taste the chocolate she had eaten in the cinema, and the tang of soda. Minion's eyes widened to twice their size, and what was left of his popcorn fell to the ground. When the initial shock wore off, he returned the kiss softly, awkwardly, since this _was_ his first. Last thing he wanted to do was rip her lip open with his teeth.

"Understand why, now?" Mary asked after she pulled away from him, smiling at him.

"...Yes. I. I think I do. In fact I know I do," Minion mumbled dumbly.

She giggled, and took his green hand into her own and smiled. "So, I was wondering about you coming back to my place for coffee? I know how you like it." Mary grinned playfully.

Minion stared at her for a moment, then looked down at her hand in his. He suddenly thought of his boss sitting at their base, waiting for him, wondering where he would be. But then he remembered how angry and annoyed he had been at the mere mention, and reveal, about Mary. Why had he been so mean? Hadn't he learned anything from the Roxanne situation at all? While he hated to think about it, Minion felt as though perhaps it would be better to just... enjoy his time with Mary now. After all, so far he had had a great time.

He smiled slowly.

"I'd love to."

_To be continued_


	7. Unleashing Emotions

"Minion? Minion? Minion!"

Megamind pushed the doors of the lair open and rushed in, looking around desperately to find the fish-man. "Minion?" he called again, as he raced past the Brain Bots who were startled awake by their daddy's noisy arrival home. A few of them made a grab for their wrenches and chased after him, eager for a game, since Minion hadn't been around to throw the wrenches for them this afternoon and they always loved their play time.

Megamind looked in the bedroom, the sewing room, upstairs as well as the back rooms. He ran from room to room, calling Minion's name. He had to tell him, he had to be honest and open to his friend, since the last time he had tried to hide anything from the fish it had resulted in events that almost led to all of their deaths. He didn't want that happening again, not now that he had figured everything out. It all made perfect sense all of a sudden; the reason why his hearts ached at the idea of him being with somebody else, how he felt lonely when he wasn't around, and why his laugh was just so damn contagious and everything else about the fish-man.

Yet Minion was nowhere to be seen.

"M... Minion?" he asked quietly, looking around the large, empty lair.

_This seems familiar,_ he thought to himself before looking at his wristwatch. It was eight forty in the evening, and Minion had left for his date at three that afternoon. Surely over five hours was long enough for a standard human date? When he had been 'dating' Roxanne theirs lasted a few hours, sure, but... this was his first, wasn't it? Chewing his bottom lip, Megamind pressed a button on the watch.

He had built a communications device into the watch, so if he wanted to talk to Minion all he had to do was press and speak. "Minion?" he asked, trying to sound stern, but only came off as sounding worried. "Minion, pick up." There was a pause. "Minion, answer me!"

Finally, he heard the click of the watch on the other end of the line answering.

"Oh, about time! What were you doing, marathoning up Metro Tower?" Megamind demanded.

"Hmm... who's this?"

That wasn't Minion's voice. That wasn't Minion's voice at _all_. The blue alien froze where he stood, surrounded by Brain Bots. "Who are you?" he demanded. "Why do you have Minion's communications watch?" he asked angrily.

"Oh. Oh, this is Mary," Mary introduced herself, before giving a small laugh. "Wow, you're grumpier than Minion said you were today."

"Where is he?" Megamind growled.

"He's resting."

"Resting?"

"Hmmhmm. He's had a _big_ day," she said in a tone Megamind did not like one iota.

"Big... big day," Megamind echoed, unable to hear the waver in his voice. He had seen enough of Minion's stupid romantic comedies to get a vibe as to what was going on here, or at least what had happened. Did she sound breathy? Satisfied?

"Hmmhmmm. He works so hard, I think he deserves some time to just relax once in a while, don't you think?" Mary asked over the watch. "You run him pretty ragged, from what I hear."

"H-he's my minion. He's meant to be run ragged!" Megamind shot back defensively.

"That isn't how you treat a friend, though. He's a friend first and minion second, isn't he?" she asked, sounding a little miffed.

Megamind felt the color drain from his face. "O-Of course he is! How dare you! How _dare_ you speak to me about how I treat him, I've known him all his life!"

"So why do you run him so hard? Don't you think he'd benefit from a day off, or a moment to not worry about you all the time? It took so much to have him relax at _all_ today!" Mary scolded. "But he deserves his rest, since he obviously can't get any with you around."

"I don't like you," Megamind sneered into the watch.

"Aren't you meant to be the hero, now?" she asked back quietly.

Megamind turned his watch off and clawed his hands wildly in the air, not knowing what to do with them. He felt so _angry_ now, angrier than he had felt in ages. So Minion complained about him? He said he worked him too hard? And what did she mean by '_resting_'? What would he have done that was so tiring today? All he'd done was go on a stupid date with this stupid woman!

But no sooner had those angry thoughts flitted through his mind, his imagination gave him a very vivid idea as to what they might have been doing. It involved not having any clothes on, being on a bed, and... and...

"NO!" Megamind screamed. He ripped his watch off of his wrist and threw it to the ground, causing the Brain Bots to yelp and move away from him, one dropping its wrench. He pressed his hands over his eyes, shaking his head as his hearts continued to beat painfully. "No, no, no, no. Minion is, is too upstanding to do that on the first date...! She's lying!" He pointed at the watch where he had thrown it. "_YOU'RE LYING_!"

The watch lay there, discarded.

He wanted to destroy something huge. Megamind wanted to climb up into his giant battle suit and just _destroy_ something, anything, to let out the raging anger swimming through his body, mind, and soul.

But he knew he couldn't. He wasn't the bad guy anymore. He was the hero now; heroes didn't go and destroy buildings because the fish-man they loved had quite possibly just gone and made the 'nasty' with a human woman. The thought alone brought on a hoarse sob from the bowels of his stomach, one he hadn't expected, and he smacked his hands over his mouth.

"What's _wrong_ with me?" he asked himself aloud, shaking. "I-I'm never like this. I. Get _mad_. I have to... no, I can't get mad. I have to. To wait. Minion will... Minion will tell me what happened. How the date went. She's probably lying. Trying to upset me. Telling lies, LIES to a superhero! That callous..." Megamind trailed off, before another sob ripped from his body. He shuddered afterwards, before rushing from the room and into the bedroom. Like a dramatic teenager he threw himself onto the bed, _their_ bed, and covered the back of his head with his hands as tears he didn't want to shed fell like waterfalls.

He hoped, he prayed, he wished that Mary had been lying about everything, just trying to upset him.

Well, if that was her mission all along, she had succeeded, since he was a puddle of shaking leather-bound goo, and felt as if he would never move again until he heard Minion walk into the lair. He'd run up to him, smack him across the face and chastise him about running around and not answering his watch, before tackling him and maybe...

"No," Megamind said bitterly. "_N-no._"

Minion would never see him like that. Why would he? What had he, Megamind, done to even warrant that kind of feeling to be returned to him? Mary had been right. He hated to admit it, but she had been right. Every day Minion did practically everything around the lair for him, not only as a fish-man but back when he was a fish getting around in a robot gorilla suit. He cooked, cleaned, made his costumes, fixed his tears and rips to his costume, laughed at his jokes, took care of the Brain Bots, helped him work out his plans and design his new creations, knew basic first aid for when he'd hurt himself either after a misfire in the lab or even after running into Metro Man and avoiding jail time, continually busted him out of jail back when he had been the bad guy, and was always there to lift his spirits when he was down, to put them together...

But... what had _he_ done for Minion?

He couldn't think of anything.

And that made the tears run down his face even faster. He didn't deserve Minion, not at all, so why would he love him back? Why else would he have latched onto this Mary so keenly, gone out with her, and now... "G-god," he shuddered.

The last time he had been like this, or even a fraction like this, had been when Roxanne had gently let him know she wasn't ready for a relationship with him. She had wished him all the best in the world, because he deserved happiness, but she felt as though she wasn't the one to bring it to him. Megamind had kept a brave face around her, said he was grateful for having known her tenderness, her love, for even just a while. But as soon as he had gotten back to the lair, he had all but thrown himself into Minion's robot arms and broken down into hysterical sobs. Minion had held him, rocked him, telling him that it hurt now but good times would come again.

He had promised he'd always be there for him.

...But now he wasn't.

The Brain Bots, as well as the large spider bot, hovered (or stood) at his door, staring in at their emotional daddy, and didn't know how to help him, at least at first. One of them finally moved in through the door, hovered across the floor, and floated around so it was hanging by Megamind's domed blue head. It barked sadly and nuzzled the crown of his head with its razor-sharp jaws, and Megamind lifted his head slowly to stare into the glowing red eye of the Brain Bot. He put on a brave smile before reaching out, and placed his hand onto its lit-up head, the inner sparks rising to meet where his hand touched the glass.

"Daddy's a bit of wreck, isn't he?" he asked faintly. The Brain Bot barked, and nuzzled against him as affectionately as a sharp-mouthed, one-eyed, floating, artificially intelligent creation of science could. Megamind laughed weakly as a few more filtered into the room after the first, trying to bring comfort to their daddy.

Yes they were guard dogs, yes they were servants of the servant, but they also had feelings for their daddy. Seeing him unhappy made _them_ unhappy and so they sought to comfort him as best they could.

The world was foggy, and it felt as though a wad of cotton was stuffed down his throat, but Minion still forced his eyes open and stared up at the unfamiliar ceiling. Beneath him was a comfortable, soft mattress that felt nothing like the one he normally slept on. Had... had Sir bought a new one and just hadn't told him? Speaking of Sir, where was he? Normally Minion awoke first, always to find Megamind clinging to him desperately in his sleep. But he wasn't there.

He lifted one of his hands to wipe at his eyes and yawned before sitting up in the bed. Opening his eyes, he finally realized that he wasn't even in the lair.

The bedroom was surprisingly bare, no pictures, no wallpaper, not even a radio or television. The cupboards were open, but empty. The only thing in the room was the bed, and Minion lying on top of it.

"What?" he asked, trying to remember the last thing his mind could recollect.

Mary had been giving him the coffee she made in the kitchen. She told him it was his favorite, and he'd drunk it. After that... nothing. There was as big fat black block sitting in his memory, taking up from seven o'clock last night, to... what time was it now?

He lifted his wrist to look at his watch, and was alarmed to see it was missing. What? Where was it? Why was it missing?

Where _was_ he?

He got up out of the bed, rushed to the door and reached for the handle, but ended up crashing right into the door before falling backwards onto the floor. Minion lay there, momentarily stunned, before sitting up. "Huh?" he asked, getting to his feet and trying the door knob again. No luck, it was actually locked. "HEY!" he shouted and slammed his fist on the door. "Open up! Open up!"

In the back of his mind, Minion was freaking out. Was he kidnapped? Had somebody drugged his coffee? If so, who? Mary? Or had there been somebody waiting in the apartment? What if Mary- "MARY?" he screamed, slamming on the door again. "MARY, ARE YOU OUT THERE?" he asked, before frantically turning around and spying the window. He rushed to it, and touched the panel to open it.

It was locked tight, just like the door. Growling in frustration, Minion lifted a fist and actually smashed the glass. It shattered, and he cut his fist in the process, but he didn't care. Before him was Metro City, and he could already tell by the location of Metro Tower in the distance that he was in the north section of the city.

Which only confused him even further. Mary had taken him northwards, so... this was her apartment? No, it couldn't be. That made no sense whatsoever to the fish-man. Peering over the window ledge, he saw just how high he was, and gulped loudly. Jumping would be suicidal, and Minion was _not_ suicidal. Then again he probably wouldn't have fit through the window anyway, it was fairly narrow.

"Am I kidnapped?" he suddenly asked aloud.

The realization that he, master of kidnapping Roxanne Ritchi, could be captured by somebody almost earned a snort of bemusement from his nose and lips, but he realized that might very well be what was happening here. He was in room, thirty floors from the ground, locked in, no way of escaping... but then why hadn't they bound his legs and arms? Had they thought whatever it was they had drugged him with would keep him sedated for longer? Obviously they hadn't taken into consideration his alien biology and how it dealt with poisons and toxins from Earth. While they did affect him, they didn't leave permanent damage... heavy sedatives might knock him out for a few hours, but not nearly as long as one might hope.

"What do I do?" he asked quietly.

"-breaking news bulletin," a voice suddenly came, incredibly muffled, from the room next to Minion's. His ears twitched, even though he was trying to think up a way out of the room. He could lift the bed and maybe use it to try and force the door open? That would work! He grabbed the mattress and lifted it off, setting it against the wall as the news continued. "-destructive force unleashed upon the downtown area-" Minion groaned as he stared down at the bed, since it appeared to be bolted to the floor. Who did that with beds, honestly? He reached down and grabbed at one of the supporting slats, but it, too, was stuck fast. "-residents reporting lightning creating a blackout downtown-"

Minion heaved against the bed, groaning in frustration as he tried to pry loose a bed slat. If he could get a nail, maybe he could pick the door's lock? He was very good at lock-picking, a talent he had picked up after years of helping to break his boss out of jail. "-resident superhero Megamind is missing-"

Even though that muffled voice could be barely made out, Minion _heard_ it as if it was being screamed right in his ear. He turned his head so suddenly he could have snapped a bone in his neck. "What?" he whispered.

"-lair seems to have been the target of the destruction. No demands have yet been issued, but we fear this is the rise of a brand new supervillain for Metro City, filling the boots that Megamind himself had left vacant. More news as it arrives."

"No!" Minion rushed at the wall, crashing against it. "That can't be it!" he shouted as he slammed his fists against the wall. "What do you mean, Megamind's missing? Megamind can't be missing! HE CAN'T BE MISSING!" he screamed at the wall before his fist began to hurt from the pounding he was giving it.

He pulled away from the door, heart both aching and racing. What could have happened? How could they have overpowered the lair's defenses? The Brain Bots themselves were strong enough to carry anyone away, and if they failed there was always Spider Bot with the de-gun settings mounted on its cannon. And Megamind himself wasn't exactly weak and helpless either; he knew how to fight, how to banter to stall for time, and how to use his lair wisely.

And she mentioned destruction, power being cut out, and... and Megamind missing. He imagined the lair destroyed, much like when the DNA extraction machine had exploded, only worse.

What if... what if by 'missing' they had meant missing in the rubble? What if something else had exploded, causing all the lightning and the destruction of the building? The image of his boss, his friend, the man he cared more deeply for than anyone else, lying in a twisted, bloodied heap utterly broke Minion's heart, and almost shattered his mind. If only he'd been there. If only he hadn't gone out with Mary and brought her into this convoluted mess that had erupted because his boss had been jealous.

Jealous. Was that what it had been all along? He didn't know, he just needed a word and he had grabbed onto it, yet it didn't feel right in his thoughts at all.

"Breaking news on the missing hero of Metro City!" the muffled voice, now unmistakable and belonging to Roxanne Ritchi, came through the walls again. Minion returned, pressing his ear desperately to the wall. "All television networks in Metro City have just received this message from an untraceable source..."

A voice replaced her own, and Minion could only guess they were playing a tape, or a recording. "Hello Metro City!" the voice greeted, sounding incredibly pleased, happy, and feminine. "It's so lovely to see you all, you're looking well! Really, I mean that. Have you done something recently? Like, oh I don't know, gotten yourself a new hero who used to be the bad guy? How interesting! How hilarious!" She laughed a high pitched squeal of amusement that caused Minion's heart to freeze over.

It was _Mary's_ laugh.

"Seeing as there's no longer any bad guys wandering the streets to make life worth living anymore, I thought I would give this little gig a whirl. My name is Lady, Lady Doppler, and it's so lovely to meet you all. As you can see, I'm already well on my way to filling the boots of Megamind and his little fish-toy Minion, by not only kidnapping one of them, but _both_ of them! Behold, Metro City, your hero."

Of course Minion couldn't see anything, but he was certain she was showing his boss to the public. Tied up, probably, bound and left somewhere. Was he hurt? Was he badly injured? Or was he simply knocked out? The ice in his heart began to suddenly thaw, melting into pure anger and rage that seemed to fill every inch of his body.

Lady Doppler was Mary. Mary was Lady Doppler. Lady Doppler had been pretending to be a simple everyday girl to get to him, to draw him away from Megamind and give her a moment to attack him without his faithful fish being there to defend him.

"Now, my demands are simple. I want every single diamond from the Metro City's Diamond Exhibit, one million dollars in untraceable bonds, and a limited edition Prada exclusive bag that came out three years ago. If I don't get these three things in the next hour, Megamind will never see the light of day again, and I know you people would simply _hate_ to lose another hero within the same year, now would you?" She was baby-talking now, as if speaking to a bunch of toddlers. "It all depends on you, citizens of Metro City. Megamind, and Minion, keenly await your decision."

Then silence, only to be replaced with Roxanne's voice, but Minion was no longer listening. His world felt as though it was falling to pieces around him. Lady Doppler, a new female super villain, had been pretending to like him for over a month. Megamind was going to die in an hour. She'd manage to kidnap not only one of them but both of them. Somehow she'd infiltrated their lair and taken his boss. Megamind was going to die in an hour. Now the city had to decide as to whether or not pay her ransom. Megamind was going to die in an hour. She was the cause behind the destruction of their beautiful lair, their home. Megamind was going to die in an hour. Hadn't she had ties to the Doom Syndicate before Metro Man had brought them all to their knees? Megamind was going to die in an hour. Mary was nothing but a fabrication of a twisted woman who was out for diamonds, money and a bag. Megamind was going to die in an hour.

_Megamind was going to die in an hour._

"_**NO!**_" Minion suddenly screamed at the top of his lungs. And, deep within him, a piece suddenly and violently snapped into place.

It felt as though the very room around him suddenly shook in reaction to his blind anger and rage. The walls and floor suddenly vibrated, and the wooden slats of the bed fell away without even needing to be touched. The fish-man barely seemed to notice any of this as he turned and reached out, grabbing the doorknob... and it seemed to crumple like aluminum foil under his hand as he ripped the door off of its hinges entirely before tossing it behind him, uncaring that the thrown object knocked out the window, and part of the wall, before falling to the ground far below.

How was he, or Megamind, ever to have known that he had indeed inherited the powers of Metro Man? How was either alien to know that these powers had been hidden deep down within the fish, like a hibernating animal during the winter?

Of course they had remained dormant during his first month of life as an alien-fish hybrid. He had no reason to use them. He wasn't out there fighting true evil and handing out justice, but that wasn't how these powers worked.

They were moved by his emotions. The kind of emotion that shook a person to their very core, the kind of anger and rage that Minion was feeling right now had triggered them, awoken them, and unleashed all the powers that Minion had held deep within him all this time. Had he inherited all of them? He didn't know; he didn't have time to think clearly. He didn't even seem to notice he had suddenly super strength at all. His mind was too preoccupied with the fact that Megamind might very well be dead in an hour.

His sole purpose in life, the man who he had stuck by ever since he had been a small helpless fish in a glass ball, was missing and quite possibly hurt. He was without him. Minion had to get to him, he had to find him and protect him and hurt any and everyone who dared get between them.

Minion left the room, dust falling around him from the destroyed walls, and found that the apartment in which he had been held had only two guards. Had they been working for Lady Doppler? He didn't stop to ask. He wasn't Metro Man, who bantered and exchanged witty quips, for when they saw him and readied weapons that looked like metallic gloves that arced electricity, Minion had focused his eyes on the gloves.

Seconds later, beams of light erupted from his eyes, hit the gloves, and they exploded. The men fell away in agony at their injured hands, and Minion walked over them, not giving them a second glance as he kicked open the door leading to the hallway. The kicked door slammed against the opposite wall before falling to the side, sending more dust flying into the air.

Minion had a job to do. He had to save Megamind because it was his duty, but even more because he loved him. He loved him more than life itself, and imagining his world, his life, without the green-eyed, blue-skinned alien in it, felt meaningless and pointless.

The fish-man soon exited the building, though he had no memory of walking down all the flights of stairs, nor did his body ache because of it. He looked up and down the street, at how seemingly deserted it was. Where was everyone? Gathering at City Hall? He had no time to wonder about this.

The fish looked up at the sky and bent his knees a fraction, before pushing off and shooting up into the skies of Metro City like a black-and-green rocket. He pulled his goggles down over his eyes so he could keep them open to see where he was going, and flew as if he had been doing it all his life. It just felt right, felt as though this was where he belonged, flying in-between buildings as he headed towards the KMCP News Building.

Miss Ritchi would be able to help. She _had_ to be able to help. Time was running out, so he sped up more, speeding towards the building like a bullet. Their station had received the information, and while she had said it was untraceable, they weren't the minion of the greatest mind the city, no, the _world_, had ever seen. They hadn't set up the schematics behind every single device Megamind had ever built, every security measure, every artificial intelligence he had made... they weren't even on the same level as he was.

He'd find out where it came from, and when he did... Lady Doppler, Mary, was going to pay for this.

_To be continued_


	8. Setting the Stakes

Roxanne was still on the air, speaking into the camera from her place behind the news desk. Normally this wasn't her domain; she was a field reporter, who would go to the stories and report on them live, but when something like this was happening it seemed as though the right place was behind a desk.

The woman could understand the worry and panic in the air. Never before had the _hero_ been kidnapped, and the fact that it was Megamind, who had patrolled the city wonderfully for the past several months, came as a shocking blow.

On top of that, Minion was gone as well. He couldn't be found anywhere, so even if no footage of him had been shown, Roxanne could only shudder to imagine what kind of danger the fish-man was in now. Was he all right? Or was he in pain? The idea was horrifying, but she managed to keep such emotions off her face as she read from the teleprompter and listened in on her earpiece, feeding the populace of Metro City information.

Meanwhile, outside, the guard standing in front of the building had to lower his sunglasses as he saw something... _flying_ through the air. With the direction of the sun, he couldn't see who it was, and for a fleeting second he believed it was Metro Man, returned from the dead. He took a step forward, but the one who landed in front of him wasn't Metro Man; it was Minion. A very angry, intimidating-looking Minion.

"Minion? But, but you're meant to be-"

"Show me the tapes," Minion said quietly. "No time for questions. Show them to me."

"You want-oh! Uh, you, you need clearance to-" the man stepped back once more as Minion was suddenly in his face, golden-brown irises pinpointed and narrowed right at him. "..to..."

"I need to see those files, please," the fish-man whispered, never raising his voice, and yet it felt as though he was screaming the request. "I need to find him, and I need to track the film. Now please move aside, or I will move you myself."

The guard did just that, giving the fish-man entrance to the building. Well, he _was_ the hero's companion, so if anyone had authority right now he would. He watched as the fish-man walked into the building before blinking in realization. "Wait, since when could he fly?"

Inside the building, word quickly spread that Minion had actually shown up, perfectly fine and demanding to see the files. The fish-man was led up into the anchor room, and he walked past the desk where Roxanne Ritchi was still reading from the teleprompter. Her boss, in her earpiece, yelled at her to drag Minion onscreen for a quick word. It would be good for ratings, he said, and while she hated to play on Minion's distress at this moment, she didn't want to face the wrath of an angry boss.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm happy to report that Minion, faithful companion to Megamind, has just walked into our studio," she said shakily, looking up at the fish-man who had stopped in his tracks when he heard her mention his name. "M-Minion do you have just a brief moment to-"

Minion was beside her in seconds, hands on the desk, and looking straight at the camera. His ears fanned out suddenly, as if trying to look impressive, but the look on his face was already doing enough of that.

"Sir, if you're hearing this," he started, tone level and calm despite the fury in his eyes, "I'm coming."

With that he left the desk, and Roxanne, and returned to join the tech guys who were leading him through to a room lined with glowing computer screens and towers of motherboards.

"We've been trying to trace it ever since we got it, but we keep being bounced around by the multiple interferences in the wires and radio towers..." said one of them, as Minion pulled a chair out and sat down in front of the computer screen closest to him.

The horrible video was being played on repeat, it seemed. At this moment there was Lady Doppler, Mary, draped over a couch as if she had been placed there by somebody else. Her hair was far longer than normal; it must have been curled incredibly tight, because if she hadn't worn it curly how could her hair be that ridiculously long? It flowed over her shoulders and back, all the way off the couch, and coiled into pools of white tresses on the floor.

She wore a spandex outfit that hugged her slender frame, colored in oranges, blues, and whites, like a cloudy sky at sunset. No longer were her eyes warm, blue and inviting. They were completely white, like a dead fish in the water. It was horrifying. Her smile had changed drastically, no longer warm and friendly but narrow and hard-biting. All teeth and lips, no more tenderness.

How could he have once thought she was pretty? His fists clenched against the desk, and it got only worse when she announced "Here is your hero," and the screen changed.

There was Megamind, lying on the floor. He was tied to a chair, but from the looks of things he had attempted to wriggle out of it only to end up toppling over entirely. His suit, as well as his cape, was torn, exposing blue skin that nobody but Minion and Roxanne had ever laid eyes on before. His eyes were shut, and for a fleeting moment Minion feared he was already dead, but those green eyes suddenly opened, and the look in them belonged to man who was petrified but trying not to show it. But, as always, those eyes gave away everything.

There were black patches on his skin; what were they? Had she burned him? _Had_ she? Minion bared his teeth before bringing up the email that had sent the film to all news channels within the city, and forced himself not to hurl the computer screen through the wall at the image he had seen. He'd never seen his Sir like that in his life, even when Metro Man was bearing down on them after another failed attempt, or when Tighten was ready to destroy him. Granted, he hadn't seen much from his place by the fountain, but he had seen enough.

"See, it keeps bouncing back here." One of the tech boys pointed to a map that was being displayed on one of the other monitors. "We can't work around the firewall."

"Firewall schmirewall," Minion whispered as his fingers worked against the keyboard so quickly, and deftly, that the room was soon full of the melodious vigorous clicking. The men stared, eyes wide, as Minion's own eyes never left the screen, or even blinked, as he typed in codex that none of them had ever seen before. One of them rushed to get a camera to film this, since it wasn't something that happened often.

"Narrowing field..." Minion whispered to himself. The map on display began to suddenly flash as a circle that showed how far the pick-up range was rapidly began to shrink. "And... we will... find the location..."

It stopped, and a big green circle appeared on the map. Minion stared at it intently, eyes narrowed.

"They're in uptown!" said one of the men. "Near the aquarium!"

There was a sudden rush of noise and wind, causing both men to instinctively shut their eyes. When they opened their eyes again, the room was completely empty of the alien man-fish, who had left far quicker than he had arrived.

"Quick, print this out, print it out!" one of them squawked at the other as the two men began to bustle around the room like bored parakeets.

* * *

><p>Minion landed at the lair first, and was horrified at what he saw.<p>

They hadn't been kidding when they talked about destruction before. There were pieces of metal, and Brain Bots, strewn everywhere. Arcs of black marred the ground, walls, and ceiling. Dotted around were small, glowing blue cubes, which told him Megamind had indeed try to defend himself but obviously had missed his target something awful. The hole that the DNA convertor had created was back, bigger and badder than ever. He found scraps of Megamind's cape, and he stared down at the black and blue material before his hands began to shake with rage again.

He tossed the material aside and rushed through the lair, and the fish-man stopped as he passed what was left of the Spider Bot. It was lying on its side, three of its legs mangled and part of its driver's seat crushed by rubble.

"Spider Bot...!" Minion gasped as he rushed up to the large A.I., who whined slowly at seeing him. "Oh... what happened here? What..." he started to ask, but it was fruitless to ask the fallen Bot. He stroked its glowing lenses gently. "I'll be back later to fix you up. All right? After, after that it'll be fine. You'll be fine."

The large machine only whined softly one more time, before the red lights in its headlight eyes powered down and faded to black.

"You're going to pay for this..." Minion whispered to himself as he looked around the lab, before spotting what he was after.

It had been tucked away in a cupboard that Lady Doppler hadn't blasted open during the 'fun' she'd obviously had while destroying their poor lab. He rushed up to it and pulled it out, and stretched the materials in his hands. Well. He had built it for a specific purpose, he might as well wear it now...

* * *

><p>"What? Oh come on darling, don't look at me like that," Lady Doppler cooed at Megamind, who, just recently, she had uprighted in his chair. "It's not my fault you were silly and struggled. Honestly, did you think you were going to go escaping? Have you <em>ever<em> escaped from rope before?" she asked, grinning fiendishly to show that she already knew the answer to this and just wanted to toy with him like a cat with a mouse.

"I must say," Megamind started, as boldly as he could while tied to a chair. "You've certainly come a long way since I last saw you."

"And when was that?" she asked.

"Metro Man chasing you and the rest of the Doom Syndicate out of town," Megamind shot back, eyes narrowed. "I remember you crying like a little girl at the time."

Lady Doppler snorted in amusement before pinching his cheek harshly, leaning closer to him with a snide grin on her face. "Ah, but so much has changed since then, hasn't it? Metro Man is dead. You're the hero. Everybody loves you. I tell you, I refused to believe any of this until I saw it for myself. With Metro Man gone... I could come home again. Thanks, for that, sweetie."

"I am not your sweetie, nor am I any kind of candy to you!" He squirmed away from her hand, cheek turning slightly pink from the harsh pinch.

She scoffed, and clapped her hands together. "Always adorable. Even back when you were with us you were adorable. But we didn't do 'adorable' in our group well, did we?"

"I left by my own choice!" Megamind snarled.

"Please, we kicked you and your stupid fish out."

"Don't you _dare_ call Minion stupid!" he threatened. "Or-"

"Or you'll what? Glare at me?" Lady Doppler asked, before giggling and clapping her hands together as if she were an excited child. She lifted herself off the ground and sat, suspended in the air, crossing her legs as she did. "Oh, but he _is_ pretty stupid. He was oh so easy to manipulate. All it took was time and careful planning..."

"Huh?" he asked, blinking dumbly.

"Oh! I didn't tell you! Gah, I'm so forgetful about some things." She smacked her forehead before hovering closer to him, until they were eye to eye. "I'm Mary."

"W-what?" Megamind asked, looking shocked.

"I'm Mary! I'm the girl he's been talking to every day! I'm the girl who managed to snag him away yesterday, and I'm the girl who left him abandoned in a room guarded by two of my henchmen!"

"What did you do to him?" The blue alien tried as hard as he could to pull out of his ropes all over again, but the attempt was useless. He wasn't going anywhere, no matter how badly he wanted to leap up and just... he didn't know. Could he hit a woman? He had been a villain all his life but he'd never struck a woman. But then again, could he call Lady Doppler a woman? The word suddenly sounded like an insult when he paired it to her name.

Lady Doppler smiled lusciously at him before she ran her hands down her front, giving a happy sound as she did. "Mmmhhhh, what _didn't_ I do to him?" she asked.

Megamind felt his stomach suddenly turn to lead, and he was certain his face must have lost all of its color when she said that, since she suddenly quirked an eyebrow at him. "Oohhh my, yes..." she purred as she floated closer to him again, resting a hand on his shoulder. "He was like putty in my hands, Megamind. He'd never experienced what I gave him, do you know? And..." she leaned in and whispered into his ear. "He _loved_ it."

The blue alien was known for his quick and witty banter. He could argue back and forth with Metro Man for hours; it was one of his best qualities. And yet, sitting here, with this woman feeding him this kind of information, his sharp-witted tongue seemed to have dulled in his mouth. His hearts were aching, his mind swimming with a whirl of emotions he didn't want, imagines he wished he couldn't think up. _She's lying_, he thought viciously.

"You're nothing but a filthy liar!" Megamind spat, and dared to actually swing his head, headbutting the woman with his powerfully large and impressive cranium.

Their heads connected with a horrible noise, somewhere between a crack and a slam, and already Lady Doppler was developing a massive bruise against her forehead where he had struck her. She yelled in pain and frustration, lifting up to grasp at her throbbing head, white eyes flashing angrily.

"Ugh! And you're a freak of nature who should have died on impact!" She suddenly opened her hands out at him, and lightning shot out and struck him.

Megamind was eerily silent as the bolts travelled through his body, enough to shock and hurt him, but nothing beyond that. It still sent him falling onto the ground again, chair and all, as tiny sparks danced between the spikes on his suit.

She lowered herself to the ground finally, and ran a hand through her long hair as it settled against her back. "Well. I don't know about you. But I'm going to go find out what this precious city is going to do about you. It's so exciting, isn't it?" she asked sweetly before walking from the room, turning the lights off, and shutting the door behind her, leaving the still-shocked Megamind lying on the floor.

He finally blinked a few moments later, and cringed at the pain still circling through his body. Damn it. He'd almost forgotten the woman's abilities with wind and lightning. That was why she had been so successful in her assault on his poor lair; everything was made of metal. All she had to do was conduct a bolt of lightning powerful enough to short circuit all of his poor Brain Bots and the machinery in the lab to cause a violent reaction, which had resulted in all those explosions. Megamind, shaken by his emotional outburst only a little while earlier, hadn't had a clear mind at the moment of attack.

That was how he ended up in this situation, tied to a chair, all night. And Minion... she said she had him, too. But where? Where was he? Was he hurt? Was he dead? His mind raced at the possibilities, but while he knew she wasn't a murdering psychopath, the woman was clearly deranged enough to cause damage to his poor friend. Why, _why_ hadn't he done a background check on this woman? That's it, he decided. Soon as I'm out of here, anyone trying to be friends with me or Minion will be getting a thorough police scan!

"..._if_ I get out of here," he said quietly, hating the fear in his voice.

He wasn't one to linger in fear for too long, since it wasn't a nice mindset to be in. He had faith in the people of Metro City, and the police, and the Warden especially, for the man had practically raised him. But he still couldn't help but be afraid, terribly afraid, that the next moment that door opened Lady Doppler would unleash something worse than what she'd already done.

Heaven forbid if she tried to paint his toenails like she used to...

* * *

><p>Lady Doppler brushed a long strand out of her face as she approached the mirror on the wall, and hissed as she looked at the massive bruise the alien had left her. "Oh God, look at the size of this thing...! Looks like I was hit by a bus..." she muttered as she tenderly touched her head, and hissed since it already hurt something awful. "Stupid alien," she muttered, before strutting over to her setup of multiple computer screens that showed the news websites streaming, as well as the weather camera that monitored Metro City at all times, recording weather patterns.<p>

It was while she was glancing at the news channels that she saw something she hadn't anticipated.

"Minion escapes capture," she read those three words and jolted back, surprised. Escaped? How had he escaped? He was a fish-man of mediocre strength, how could he break down a door? And he'd been too high up to jump out the window. Why hadn't her hired henchmen called her? Angrily, Lady Doppler grabbed a phone and began to dial.

"Can't do anything, knew I should have kept him here..." Lady Doppler whispered to herself angrily. She listened to the phone calling, and calling, and soon wrung out. Feeling a little worried now, the woman put the phone down and looked at it. Had Minion... no, no. He wasn't a killer, was he? _Then again, he has those teeth, and he was an animal for most of his life..._

A countdown clock displayed amongst her computer screens flashed at her, letting her know she had five minutes left, as did Megamind. She checked her bruise again and positioned her hair so it covered most of it, before hitting the record button. She smiled pleasantly, despite the worry now in her stomach.

"Greetings, Metro City, me again! Miss me? I missed you! Well, there's only five minutes left-oop, make that four!- until Megamind's hour is up, and I don't see any of the news channels telling me what I desired is ready, or here. I'm disappointed, Metro City." She put a hand to her chest, looking bereft. "I thought that you cared for your hero, but it looks like you don't! How disappointing. So here's the gist. In a few minutes I'm going to be carrying you through to witness the end of your hero. Maybe then you'll learn not to take everything for granted, and feel that there'll always be somebody around to save your sorry behinds. See you soon!" She turned the camera off and hit the 'send' button instantly, before turning around in her chair, rubbing her sore head. "Bunch of..."

The wall besides her suddenly exploded, sending bricks and dust flying into the air. The young woman yelped in surprise and instantly leapt out of her chair, hair caught in the wind and whipping around her head as she lifted her hands to shield her face. "W-what the..."

A hand was suddenly around her neck and the woman was slammed down against her desk of monitors, sending a fair few of them toppling to the ground. As the dust quickly settled she saw who it was, and even though she knew he had broken out of his confinement it was still a shock to see Minion here, standing over her, with a look of total and utter hatred in his brown eyes.

"M-Minion..." she strained. "So good to... see you."

"Where is he?" Minion asked quietly as he pulled back, lifting the woman up off the ground and holding her above him. "Where is he?" his tone grew more demanding.

Lady Doppler's answer was to scratch her gloved hands suddenly across Minion's face. He yelped in surprise; while it didn't hurt, he still wasn't used to the idea that he was indestructible. Did he even know he was? He dropped the woman and took a step back, lifting his hands to touch his face.

"How did you get out? What did you do to my henchmen?" Lady Doppler demanded, hovering in the air. "You're not meant to be here, you're ruining everything! What do you think you are, a hero? You're nothing but a minion, a stupid little minion who does everything for that stupid hero you call your boss!"

Minion suddenly snarled, and next thing Lady Doppler knew he was grappling with her. She instantly flew upwards into the air, taking the fish-man with her. When they got high enough she could push him off, sending him falling back to the city. How she'd dislodge him though, since he had a fairly good grip of her, would be tricky. So, she began to fly in crooked zigzags and loop-de-loops through the air. Still Minion held onto her for all he was worth, which was a lot, since it felt as though she just couldn't shake him. "Let go of me!" she finally snarled, and yelped since he had suddenly grabbed onto her hair and yanked. "AUGH!"

"NO!" Minion shouted back as the wind whipped around him, and he tried not to feel motion sick from the crazy flying that Lady Doppler was putting him through. That was the only drawback; he wasn't used to any of this; the crazy flying, no banter, none of that was how he handled things. But on the tenth loop-de-loop, Minion finally released her, and fell.

"YES!" Lady Doppler squealed, but then gasped, and replaced it with a "NO!" since Minion was... hovering there, as if... as if he was Metro Man.

Was Minion actually Minion? Was he somebody else? No, who else could pull off a face like that? "W-what?" she asked, shocked.

"I'm going to ask again, where-" Minion stopped as he spun around and stared at the building he had flew into moments ago. Megamind could be down there, couldn't he? She would keep her prized 'jewel' nearby surely, especially if she was about to... "You were going to _kill_ him," Minion suddenly remembered, turning to look up at the woman, eyes once again flashing with anger.

"Kill him? Kill him? Hah!" Lady Doppler laughed, amused. "I'd be doing him a favor if I did, that-yike!" she suddenly flew away, since Minion had suddenly flown right at her. She hadn't anticipated that. He wasn't like his master at all, he wasn't stopping to banter or jibe or throw insults back and forth at all! Didn't he know how things worked? Or was he beyond the rules now, ignoring them? Had she enraged him that much? Lady Doppler flew away from the green-skinned fish-man as quickly as she could, manipulating the wind currents around her to carry her faster. But it seemed he was smart enough to remain as close to her as possible, using the same drag of wind as she was.

"Stop following me!" she yelped, unnerved by how determined the fish was.

The two flying beings flew straight into the aquarium. The way they swam in and out between the open air facility was a wonder, but there were people there, people who cried out in surprise (some delight, some shock) at seeing Lady Doppler being chased by Minion, of all things. He suddenly had a grip on one of her ankles and the woman screamed as he threw her down into one of the tanks. Lady Doppler sunk into the water momentarily before climbing out, and glared up at the fish-man who was flying straight down at her. She yelped and took to the air, her soaking wet hair now feeling far heavier than it really was. That gave her some drag, so Minion grabbed hold of her again and threw her down into another tank, and she got out of that one quick smart since there had been at least four sharks nearby.

While the two flying beings were playing out their battle within the aquarium, a news van that had followed Minion pulled up in front of the building he had vanished into. Roxanne raced out, uncaring if her cameraman kept up, and rushed inside. She knew this was brazen and stupid of her, but if Minion had been right, if Megamind was in here, he had to get out of here. To imagine Lady Doppler angry, blind for revenge or whatever it was she wanted him for, doing anything to him, was too horrendous to imagine. She paused to stare out a nearby window to see the shapes of the two flying around the aquarium just down the street, before continuing into the lair.

There was a gaping hole in the wall, and standing around it were, Roxanne could only guess, Lady Doppler's henchmen. The men heard her and turned around to look at her, all of them wearing masks and clothes that made her think of dark stormy nights. They wore metallic gloves, and they all sparked as the lifted them, but Roxanne was quicker.

Back when she had been dating Megamind, he had built a way for her to defend herself, and even when they had broken up he insisted she keep it close to her just in case. Her De-Gun was quicker than their gloves and didn't need time to charge, and seconds later three tiny blue cubes sat on the floor. "Some help," she muttered as she put the De-Gun back into her bag before hurrying to the lone door.

Pushing the door open she saw him, laying there on the floor, tied to a chair. Months ago, Roxanne would have found this sight very pleasing. He would have deserved it, after all the times he had kidnapped her, strapped her to chairs, and taunted her in an attempt to impress her or terrify her. Now, though, she saw a sorry sight that made her heart ache. She rushed to her friend. "Megamind, Megamind...!" she gasped, praying he was alive and not dead already. "Please, Megamind... open your eyes, it's all right..."

"Roxanne?" he asked, opening his eyes straight away, and looked up at her. "Oh, Roxanne! Roxanne it-it's you-wait, what are you doing here?"

"Minion led me here," Roxanne said as she began to untie the rope quickly. "He's fighting Lady Doppler, right now."

"What?" Megamind finally wriggled free of the ropes that had kept him in place since the night before. No doubt he had rope burns on his wrists and ankles... "Where are they? Where?"

"Last I saw they were at the aquarium, but..." she replied before Megamind rushed past her to the door. "Hey, wait!"

"I can't wait! I have to see him!" Megamind called back as he rushed past the cameraman. He had been filming the area, but lifted the camera as Megamind raced past him, and kept on him as the blue alien paused momentarily by the doors, gripping the frames to look over his shoulder at Roxanne. "I love him, I can't leave him now!" he said, unknowing or uncaring if this was going live or not, and ran from the room.

Roxanne raced up after him, pausing to look at the cameraman. She blinked, before realizing this _was_ live. "T-this is Roxanne Ritchi reporting live from Lady Doppler's lair. Megamind has been released from his... his ropes, and now we're both on our way to the Aquarium, where Lady Doppler and Minion are continuing their fight! Stay tuned, more soon!" She gestured the camera off, heart racing.

Megamind had just admitted to loving Minion, a very _male_ fish-man, on live television, and he didn't even know it. "They're going to love this," she groaned as she hurried out after Megamind to offer him a ride to the aquarium in her news van.

She just hoped that they had not missed anything major happening...

_To be continued_


End file.
